Southern Skies
by Annabella Laurie
Summary: Could the fairy tails from Bella's childhood be real? Renee and Charlie took the news of Edward and Jacob's secrets well. Is there a dark past that has prepared them for such unimaginable secrets such as vampires and warewolves?
1. Prologue

_**Author's Note…**_** In the beginning of **_**New Moon**_**, Carlisle brought up the topic of religion as he stitches up Bella's arm. Bella states, "My own life was fairly devoid of belief… Renée tried out a church now and then, but, much like her brief affairs with tennis, pottery, yoga, and French classes, she moved on by the time I was aware of her new fad."**

**The prologue takes place when Bella was a child and just found out that her mother had tried out a church and was sorely disappointed by the religious experience.**

_**Disclaimer…**_** The Twilight Saga belongs to none other than Stephanie Meyer. **

Growing up in the Phoenix suburbs was hard sometimes; other children didn't understand families that weren't like their own. Up until I started school, I didn't even think my family was different from the 'norm.' I had two homes, one in Phoenix, Arizona with my mother and one in Forks, Washington with my father. They were polar opposites. My mother, Renée, was giddy and always had something to say while my father, Charlie, was more of a quiet man. I think I take after my father, but I enjoy being around Renée; her bubbly personality always spilled over, infecting everyone around her. I had the best of two worlds, but other kids didn't understand that.

Renée always wanted me to be more social, so for my eighth birthday, I invited a friend from school over for a slumber party. When she asked where my dad was, I explained to her that he lived in Washington.

She asked what every kid that age asks, "Why?" Not fully comprehending that moms don't always stay with dads and dads don't always try to stay with their kids, or at least that's what it seemed like sometimes, she asked again. "Why?"

That was the first and last sleep over I ever had. I didn't mind though; it was better with just my mom and I, no one prying into our personal lives.

Just like every summer, I went up to see Charlie. Summers with Charlie were usually boring and I would be stuck hanging out with Rebecca and Rachael Black while my father went fishing with their father, Billy, but I still enjoyed being able to see my dad. At the end of the summer, I was always impatient to get home to Renée, but not ready to leave Charlie. It was the worst time of year for me. It would be an entire year before I would get to see him again. He would never leave Forks; our lives were too far apart, too complicated if you will. Shrugging off my old worries, I tried not to place any of the blame on my dad; my mom had to get out of Forks. I didn't blame her though, I think I would leave too if I was her, but only if it meant that my dad wouldn't get hurt. Unfortunately, he was hurt; I could see it when he looked at me, even though he tried to hide it.

When I got off the plane in Phoenix, I half expected to see my mother nearly vibrating with excitement to have me home as she usually did when I got back, but instead, she helped me with my bags and led me to the car without a decent smile. This was so unlike her. She looked so regimented and sullen. When we reached her car, she pulled me in for a hug, kissing my forehead, but it wasn't her usual greeting; I was worried. Her strange new emotion replaced her smiles with frowns and clouded her eyes over. She seemed desperate and clingy. Everything and anything was coming to mind as to why the change in her behavior. Did someone die? Was she sick? Did something happen to Charlie while I was in flight? I'm sure she would have said something by now if it were serious. The entire ride home from the airport was made in silence. If a pin did indeed drop, I would have heard it. My mother was never quiet. I was turning ten in September, but I liked to think myself as a perceptive person and I knew my mother better than I know myself… I think.

Dinner that night went the same way. Silent. Even though she fixed my favorite meal, it didn't seem to make me feel any better. She had the slightest crease between her beautiful green-hazel eyes. I wanted to know what had changed over the past month that made my mother so withdrawn. What had affected her so deeply?

That night, when she tucked me into bed, a ghost of her smile lit her face.

"You know I love you, right?" she said. What kind of question was that? Of course I knew she loved me.

I just nodded, afraid my voice would betray the fear and panic rising in my chest. My mother was acting so strange; I just wanted the old Renée back, the one I left a month ago.

"You really are special, Bella. Don't let anyone tell you differently," she said, content with my answer. "Do you want to hear a bed time story?" She smiled and I nodded again, getting sleepier by the minute. I had to force my eyelids to stay open.

"A long time ago, in the early 1600s, a woman named Lizbeth Knowlton lived in England with her grandfather, Knight Milton Ivan Knowlton. Lizbeth was beautiful as could be; she was a free spirit and thought for herself, which was not typical of women back then. She always turned down the young men that came to court her and was thought to have been given too much freedom from her grandfather." My mother's face grew dark again.

"Rumors began to fly around the city of London about Lizbeth. People of the town had seen her swimming in a stream on her grandfather's estate and it was believed then that only witches could swim. An innocent woman would always sink to the bottom while the guilty would stay afloat. However, the clergy didn't have substantial proof to prosecute a woman of her standing. The only thing saving her from burning at the stake was her grandfather's title as Knight.

"When Lizbeth was only seventeen, her grandfather grew very sick and died, leaving her his estate. Shortly after his death, she met a captain's son named Nicholas Cole and recognizing that she needed a man to help support the land, they married. It was unbecoming of a woman of her status to marry a man of the sea. The church still kept a close eye on Lizbeth; they still thought her a witch and no longer had her grandfather's name to protect her.

"About a year after Nicholas and Lizbeth wed, she gave birth to two beautiful twin girls, a brunette with wide, innocent brown eyes and a redhead with reflective green-hazel eyes." My mother's face softened as she stroked my hair against the pillow. A single tear escaped, sliding down her cheek and falling on the bed beside me. "This was the proof the Church had been waiting for, 'witch twins.' The church's clergy made the decision in the best interest of the parish to rid them of Lizbeth and her spawn. Lizbeth had a vision of the impending attack and told Nicholas to take the girls and leave, as far and as fast as he could. Lizbeth had to protect her family; it was her duty as a mother and as a wife. She felt she needed to stay to surrender and finish what had been started, afraid that if the Clergy didn't find her, they wouldn't stop until they did. They would hunt them down for all of eternity if she didn't face them.

"Lizbeth was taken away to the church to be locked up until morning for her public punishment. As she sat in the cell, a clergyman and his son sat watching her, reading scriptures to help prepare her sole for eternal damnation. During the night, Lizbeth had a prophesy. She foresaw that for generations to come, her daughters would be gifted twins. One, the redhead, will be the aggressor, able to control all things physical, while the weaker brunette will be the defensive, protecting her and her sister's mind from intrusion. However, because of the hatred humanity had cast on the family for their differences, the twins would always be in danger, not from the outside world, but from themselves. The daughters can only live together in harmony when growth has stopped." My mother paused for a moment with a frown clouding her face once more. She seemed to be deep in thought before continuing. "Seeing as it is impossible to stop growing, even as an adult, the girls would never be able to live together." As Mom's story was coming to a close, I felt my eye lids droop farther, picturing this beautiful woman locked up in a church, waiting to be burned at the stake.

"What happened to her husband and daughters?" My voice was thick with sleep.

"Nicholas was set to stow away on his father's ship that was to leave for the New World in a few weeks, but ended up setting sail before the sun even rose that morning in order to save them from being found. Nicholas didn't know about the prophecy and didn't realize he had to keep the girls apart. Over the course of the several month journey, the brunette was 'accidentally thrown' overboard and drowned, fulfilling Lizbeth's premonition. One twin would always die, usually the weaker brunette at the hand of her sister."

That night I slept like a rock, exhausted from worrying about my mother and her strange bedtime story. I remember floating in and out of dreams about a redhead I had never met, a redhead that looked almost exactly like me. In every dream, she had the ability to move things with her mind. She was incredibly strong and her 'gift' was amazing to watch. I felt weak compared to her. Her movements were powerful and while I watched helplessly, I knew I was the weak one.

I was the one meant to die.

**Author's Note… Nice little prologue for you… **

**Reviews make me jump up and down and want to write more! I promise to respond to any questions!**


	2. The Beginning

_**Author's Note…**__Twilight_ and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Takes place the spring before _Twilight_ starts.

This is a totally different FanFic. This isn't from Bella or Edward's POV. This is a girl named Annabella Laurie. She lives in SW Florida, is sixteen at the start of the story, attends Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU), emancipated herself from her foster family, and is very mature for her age due to everything she has been through. I would love to tell you more but, if you stick with the story you will find out more about her with the character development.

Also, I finally found a totally awesome beta reader! Thank you so much Mistyrious Charades for making time to beta my story.

_Just when you thought you knew it all, life slaps you in the face._

Environmental Bio with Neil Wilkinson was such a late class. I still however loved the class more than any other class and my professor was the best, but we didn't get out until after eight. Tonight was our last night together, and as a reward for surviving our finals, we went on a canoe trip through Fish Trap Bay down off Bonita Beach. It's a beautiful area and FGCU had a marine lab with direct access to the water.

Everyone was light-hearted, knowing the finals were now over. Our professor, (who on the first day of class asked us to call him "just Neil," because Professor Wilkinson was his nephew), was taking advantage of his class's high spirits; he dived right into a bird lesson pointing out the different herons and egrets, and discussing the differences in their colors and sizes. Marlo and I were the only two that hung back to keep Neil, and his bird ramblings, company.

I felt bad when the other _shitheads_ in class didn't show him respect. At this very moment, they were playing bumper canoes like a bunch of immature children.

"Isn't that a tricolored heron?" I said.

"Very good, Annabella!" Neil said. "See the white belly and the reddish color under the neck? It almost looks like a little blue heron, if you don't notice those color differences."

I tried to make Neil feel like everyone else was as enthusiastic about nature as he was. Even though I'm an enthusiast on the subject, others in the class could care less. I smiled and nodded as Neil launched into a full description of the tricolored heron.

"Kiss ass," the guy in front of me said under his breath. He always seemed to have a snide remark to throw out. This one threw my thoughts in a whole new, negative direction.

Marlo and I ended up having to share a canoe with the _strange_ kid in class. You know what kid I'm talking about… He sat in the back corner of class, mumbling to himself, while everyone else was too afraid to actually approach him. I'm not entirely sure what his name was, but everything about him screamed solitude. He must have been at least nineteen or twenty, but his face was still covered in acne; he also liked to drive his banana-yellow sports car very fast, with his music turned up to deafening levels. No wonder no one ever wanted to ride with him on field trips. I'm sure people would have hung out with him if he were more sociable.

Today, he was late; he refused to ride with someone else and ended up getting lost. Marlo and I stayed behind to assist Neil in helping the others load up their canoes and as a result, were the last ones to leave dock. Just as we were about to leave, this joker runs up, alone of course, and we had no choice but to let him ride with us. I felt totally jipped. I was perfectly content sharing a canoe with just Marlo. She was totally cool, easy to get along with, and actually put effort into paddling. This guy just sat in the middle, arms crossed, and I thought he might've even fallen asleep - until he threw out his snide 'kiss ass' comment. What a jerk! After that, I was careful to splash him with water every time I rotated sides with my paddle.

I tried to ignore the joker in the middle, and concentrate attentively on everyone else's good mood. This lasted until the sunset, when half our class took a wrong turn in the dark. It was interesting; no one had brought a cell phone in fear of dropping them in the water, or losing them during the epic canoe battles. We spent an extra hour looking for the morons who couldn't follow directions (or a map.) Most of our class had already gone back to the dock, wanting to return home, but Marlo and I didn't want to leave Neil. It seemed that everything always went wrong for him, no matter how hard he tried. Joker just wanted to go home, but Marlo and I ignored his complaints.

We didn't end up finding our missing classmates until almost nine, and it took an extra thirty minutes after that to get back to dock. It was ten before Marlo dropped me off in front of the Student Union and waved goodbye; she was such a sweetheart for staying behind to help Neil put away the canoes. I would miss her now that classes were out for the summer. Maybe I would have her in another class next fall. I was almost crestfallen until everything sunk in; the semester was over and I had three whole months before I had to open another stupid book. My dwindling cheerful mood soared, and I was almost skipping across campus to my car.

The parking lot my car was in was on the other side of the pond, behind the Student Union and Sugden Hall. It would have been faster to walk directly behind the buildings, but I decided to take the lighted walkway around the pond instead. Campus was dark and had cleared out for the summer. Although I was familiar with the area, it was still eerie in the silence of night. My footsteps sped across the pavement. All I could hear were my footsteps and my racing heart; even the pond seemed vacant of life.

_Just a little further_, I kept thinking to myself. _There is no need to be afraid. _

I had almost reached the dirt path leading to Parking Lot Eight, when I realized I wasn't alone. I sensed this man's presence before I actually saw him. I looked behind me at the empty Sugden Hall, and standing near the back doors, was the man I felt watching me. His skin seemed to glow in the light of the low hanging red moon. I froze in my tracks, but he disappeared.

I continued walking towards the lot. Again, I saw him in front of me this time, about a hundred feet away in the parking lot. The new position put him right in the path to my car, the only one left in the lot at this late hour. His eyes glowed bright red against his ghostly pale complexion. The expression on his face turned up into a sneer, as he crouched into a catlike stance and began to advance. Halfway to me, he sprang into the air; the sneer had turned hungry. This strange man was going to kill me and I knew it. I had been in plenty of brawls before, and I knew how to defend myself, but this man was different. _He wasn't human._

I threw my hands out instinctively, but before I could do anything more, he hit me with such a force I fell back as his teeth sank into my right hand. What kind of sick joke was this? He _bit_ me? Out of total disgust, I pulled my arms in and thrust them back out as if pushing against a huge wall. The man flew back fifty feet, and slammed into an old slash pine, knocking it right over. With my strange gift, I held him there and darted for my car. Reaching for my keys, I felt the fire for the first time and dropped to my knees in agony. The pain made everything blurry, but I refused to let up my hold on this man. There was no way I was going to let him get anywhere near me again.

I looked over to make sure I still had him trapped, and with a gasp, realized there were more pale men around him. Before I could reach my gift out to pin them too, I heard a screeching sound like metal being ground together. This new company was _tearing apart_ the man who had attacked me!

What was going on? What if they then turned on me? I didn't have much time to think through the predicament. The new men had a fire going and were throwing the torn apart pieces of my attacker in. Thick, sickly sweet scented smoke rose from the flames. This sight should have frightened me, but I was too shocked, maybe amazed. I'm not sure of the exact emotion I was feeling; it was a very surreal experience.

As I kneeled on the ground, holding my hand tightly to my chest, the three men started walking toward me, slowly, deliberately. I looked at them more clearly now. All three had the same red eyes, not quite as bright as my attacker's eyes, and they all seemed to have the same pale skin, even though one man was clearly of Hispanic descent. Although they walked casually apart, there was clearly a set of bonded formation.

The man who took center, the assumed leader, was absolutely breathtaking. His perfect blonde hair was slightly shaggy and windblown. His deep red eyes, which should have completely freaked me out, seemed to look natural on his pale face; even the purple circles under his eyes didn't take away from his sheer beauty. His right flank was a beautiful Hispanic. Tall and lean with short messy black hair, and a laid back expression that was set across his flawless face. On the left flank was a shorter man, ripped through with insane muscles; his build resembled that of a bear.

Who were these red eyed men who had just saved me? Was I still in danger? I felt I was, but at the same time I didn't want to use my gift to hold them back either. My curiosity was too strong for me to repel them.

"What should we do with her?" the shorter, bulky man asked.

"It looks like he already bit her. It's amazing there isn't more damage to her," the dark skinned man responded.

"He was just a newborn. He probably wasn't skilled enough to take her out quickly. Let me just kill the girl now, and get it over and done with," the short man said. Impatience and insanity covered his face, masking his beauty.

The statement brought me back to my senses. I used my strange gift to pick up the tree that I had thrown my attacker into, and lobbed it right at my new threats. The thick trunk shattered when it hit these three new strangers. I could tell it hadn't fazed them, but it did make them stop.

"Did you see what she just did?" the darker skinned man asked, perplexed.

"Maybe we should keep her. If her power is already so pronounced as a human, imagine her potential after she's changed." The beautiful blonde had whispered this, with slight wonder in his perfect voice.

"I guess we could use the girl," the bulky man shrugged. I could tell he just wanted to kill me and it was taking full restraint not to. It wasn't a very comfortable feeling…

"Run back to the house and prepare the others for her arrival. You don't need to be around her fresh blood, Marcellus," the leader said. "Once you've alerted them, you can go hunt."

Marcellus didn't think twice about this. He disappeared as if a blurred streak in the west. I was left with the two seemingly less hostile men.

The blonde angel spoke. "You must excuse our friend. He gets a little angsty when he's thirsty, and he is younger than we are. Well I guess you'll understand soon enough."

He reached down for me, and I was in too much agony to resist.

_Maybe this angel could help me_, I thought as he cradled me in his arms.

I couldn't tell if this man really was ice cold on a hot May night like this, or if the fire in my veins had distorted my sense of temperature.

"Hang on." I felt the wind whip my face, but I didn't seem to have the strength to open my eyes… Before I knew it, I felt myself slip into unconsciousness.

_**Author's Note…**_Just stick with me guys. I promise, as you read, questions will be answered with development.

Thanks again to my beta reader Mistyrious Charades!

Reviews are better than bird watching with Neil!


	3. New Family

_**Author's Note…**__**Twilight**_** and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. **

**This chapter starts to give you some insight on Annabella's life and who she is. There is still a lot more that I'm not going to reveal about our Ann, but good things come in time.**

**Thank you to my awesome betas Larin20 and Mistyrious Charades! You both are the froot to my loop! **

What was this strange pain spreading through my veins like fire? How is it even possible for one person to feel so much pain? Was this what it felt like to be burned at the stake? Was I finally being punished for who I am, for my strange gift, my evil? Was I even conscious? I slipped away again.

_I don't remember when the madness started, I've always been angry, and I guess this anger manifested itself into this strange ability to make things happen, move, manipulate. I'm not sure how many foster families I've had, how many homes I've lived in, or even how many times I've been in and out of juvenile detention centers. My name is Annabella Laurie, but as for my real last name, I'm not sure. I could probably look up my biological name on my birth certificate, but it's been changed a few times by the foster families that actually gave a damn about assimilating me into their perfect family unit. At the moment, my driver's license read Annabella Laurie Tyler, so I guess I'll just stick with that name for now. I prefer to just be called Ann though. I had one family that I accepted and they accepted me in turn, but I don't like to think of them. They had given me the last name Hall… but they died a long time ago…_

_The only other true family I have ever known was a girl I met when I was a kid. Her name was Amanda and she, like most, didn't exactly have the best family life either. Her parents split up when she was a baby and her mother ended up remarrying a man that wasn't the most responsible. She had three half-brothers, each about a year and a half apart; the oldest was three years younger than her. Her father passed away when she was eight years old on Halloween night. I never mentioned her father and she always had a hard time celebrating Halloween so instead, we would go out on Mischief Night to quench our thirst for destructive teenage fun. Amanda is nine months and five days older than me, so we always got away with saying we were real sisters when anybody asked, and we always lied about our real family life; our lies were so much better than the truth, as if anyone would believe the truth anyways. _

_On nights when her mother, Pam and step-dad, Eric fought, she would sneak away to wherever I happened to be staying. We would go out and forget our problems. We would go to the beach and sit on the pier, dangling our feet over the waves. We picked up some bad habits, but enjoyed every minute of it. _

_This didn't last long. When Amanda was only sixteen years old, she got pregnant and cleaned up her act real quick. Following her lead, I straightened out too; we always did things together, never leaving the other behind. Amanda had a beautiful baby girl on June 17, 2006; she named her Emily Addison. I was so happy for my best friend. Emma was the best-behaved child and she had the best mother in the world. _

_Throughout Amanda's pregnancy, faculty at Estero High treated her like she was a social outcast and her counselor made her feel like being a teenage mom ended her chance at a future. Anyone who knows Amanda would know that she must prove people wrong. Amanda refuses to be a statistic in a book; a drop-out teenage mother was not in her plans. We took online classes together and caught up our credits needed so that we wouldn't have to go to this hellhole of a school any longer. The fall after Emma was born, Amanda and I were to be starting our junior year, but we decided to get a jump-start on college and do early admissions at Florida Gulf Coast University instead. _

_Shortly after her seventeenth birthday in December, Amanda and I emancipated ourselves and managed to get a house on our own. Amanda was afraid that her mother was too controlling of the way she was raising her child and she didn't like the environment her step-dad and brothers were setting up for Emma. Amanda decided it best to separate herself from them. I wanted to support her fully and never really cared for the several foster families I seemed to be going through and felt like a drain on the system, so I was right there beside her to help emotionally, financially, and in any other way she needed me. I love her as a true sister would._

_We had made it through our first two semesters at FGCU financed by the Lee County School System. I had been on my way home to celebrate Summer Break with her when I ran into those pale men in the parking lot. _

The abrupt memory of those men brought me back to consciousness. I screamed out in pain as I felt the fire burn through my veins. Maybe it wasn't the new turn in my nostalgic dreams that woke me; maybe it was this searing pain. I had never felt anything quite like this. It felt like a fire was raging its way through my bloodstream, charring everything it came in contact with.

I noticed for the first time that I was lying in a room on cold tile. In front of me, I could see the bottom of a chair and sofa, and legs to a coffee table. Pain washed over me again, blurring my vision.

Memories of Amanda were fading into clouds like a dream. What was happening? I refused to let my sight of Amanda and our past go. I held on to them, memorized them. I found myself thinking through my entire life afraid to lose these memories, even the memories I hated. The ones that woke me up at night screaming.

These new memories caught me off guard and made me push my gift out; I saw the furniture shoot back away from me. The pain blurred my senses. I couldn't see anything anymore and I still didn't know where I was. All I knew was that I was in an open room curled up on the floor. All I could hear were my own screams of pain.

I fell back into unconsciousness.

_I was adopted at birth by a kind family; my adopted parent's names were Gary and Christine Hall. Gary had been a police officer and Christine stayed at home with us kids. They loved me like one of their own children. I let my mind skim over the details to help block out the pain their memories brought. I blocked out the brother and sister I had known and our seemingly happy childhood together. I had to think of them though because I didn't want to forget, and my mind seemed to be drowning out my memories in a haze of searing pain. _

_They adopted me in Portland, Oregon, just south of the Washington line on the Pacific Coast, and moved to Florida. They never told me about my real parents nor discussed their reasons for moving so far from the life they had built and my first home. They were a good Christian family and sent me to a private school to get the best education. I had always been smart and had top scores in all my classes, but I never felt like I belonged in the Christian environment. Something in me just didn't feel Christian. I read all the stories and I had heard about demons and the evil witchcraft of the devil, but they just made me feel bad. I don't have another word to describe it; just 'bad,' like a child sneaking sweets before dinner. _

_My family always took care of me and gave me everything I wanted. I was always careful with my temper around them because I knew that if I lost control, awful things would happen. _

_I first discovered my gift when I started school. I was four years old and away from my mother's loving eyes. I found myself in a completely different environment with people I didn't know. When I felt my nervousness rise up inside me, I also saw small objects around me dart away. I had gotten in trouble my first day for throwing a pencil, when I hadn't thrown it at all. When I tried to explain what really happened, my teacher just got mad and I decided it would be best if I kept this incident to myself for now. I didn't tell my mother and I didn't tell anyone else; I was afraid they would think I was lying and get in trouble for breaking the ninth commandment. The words had been imprinted in my brain and reverberated when I thought about what my family would say. _

"_Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor…"_

_I could not disappoint my family like that. _

_As I got older, I was taught more about evils in my Bible classes, but when my pastor mentioned witchcraft and magic being of the Devil, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Was I evil? I had discovered more about my gift with time and the introduction of new emotions, but I had never considered it as an 'evil' until that point. From then on, I swore never to touch my gift, my 'evil,' ever again. _

_Over the years, I continued with my devout studying with my family. I never felt like I fully fit in, but I tried my hardest. Occasionally, I would feel the urge to resurrect my 'evil' through my conflicting childish emotions, but I fought against it; I fought to stay levelheaded and in control of it to keep from disappointing my loving family. That all changed so fast with just one slip. _

_I lost control just once…_

I ripped myself from those thoughts. It was all too painful to think about.

I woke with another scream of agony. This time when I woke, everything was in focus and I could tell it was light outside through the thick curtains. The blonde angel, the same I had seen in the parking lot the night before, was standing before me. It was funny how clearly I could see him. Every detail, even the way his breath stirred the dust in the air in front of his perfect face. My fuzzy memories seemed to be fading fast as if I was trying to focus on them though dirty glass. Everything was so clear compared to those memories. I was trying to focus on my memories through the continued searing pain when the fair-hair angel spoke.

"Hello my dear, my name is Dontae. I don't believe I got a chance to introduce myself last night before you collapsed."

I tried to concentrate on his words, but the pain was too much. I let a low groan slip through my lips as another beat of raging fire was pumped through my body. My struggling heart was forcing itself to live, but the pain was overwhelming and taking control. I had wished for death before, but never like this. The raging fire made me wish that stranger in the parking lot had simply killed. I wished that I had let him kill me.

Dontae continued talking, but I was distracted, focusing on how I could feel the fire race through my body from my heart to my lungs, back to my heart, and then shoot out through my body, just to return to the heart and start over again. I tried not to think about the pain, but I could feel its route through me with each beat of my pathetic heart as if it were happening in slow motion.

Heart.

Lungs.

Heart.

Surge.

Heart.

Lungs.

Heart.

Surge.

The surge was the most painful part. I wished that I had not taken Human Systems last semester. I wished that I did not know the course that blood takes through the body, did not know that this fire was in my blood steam by its burning path. I could feel the fire spread from my core, through my arms and into my fingertips. The pain intensified when the fire passed through the inside of my elbows and wrists. That was only my arms, a small fraction of body mass that felt engulfed in a raging, focused, fire.

"I don't think she's paying even the _slightest_ amount of attention to you, brother." My eyes darted to the new voice that sounded vaguely familiar. It was the darker skinned man from the previous night.

"I doubt she can quite yet, Javier," Dontae replied. "She must be in excruciating pain at the moment. Her scent is starting to change, but she still has a long way to go."

"What is your name anyways?" the man named Javier asked me as his eyes raked over my tormented body.

"Ann," I whispered in a hoarse breath. I couldn't manage any more than that after all my screaming. I had decided that screaming wasn't helping any. I needed to find out what was going on. "Where am I? What's happening to me?"

"Ann, that's a pretty name to go with a pretty face," Dontae soothed with his velvet voice. "Well Ann, you're safe with us for now, but I need you to listen to me carefully. The pain you are feeling will go away in a day or two; it might be even longer judging the location of the bite." Dontae seemed to be stalling. Was he serious? Was I really going to be in this much pain for at least another day, or perhaps even longer? Fuck that!

"Ann, try to focus please. We don't know who it was that bit you. He was a stranger around here and very young, probably recruited by someone older trying to take over the area."

"What are you talking about? Recruited? Taking over?" My words shook violently against the agony.

"Ann, you were bitten by a vampire. We were tracking him to see if he would lead Marcellus, Javier and I back to his creator. When we saw him attempt to feed on you and saw what you had done to stop him, we had to intervene. You're ability was so pronounced, so great in your human form that we had to save you."

This was too much. My evil had saved me from what? Vampires? I felt myself slip into oblivion again.

_I was put in a foster home after the death of the only family I had ever known. I was still young and was adopted by a new family quickly; they were the ones who gave me the name Tyler. They were tolerant, but it wasn't the same loving environment I had back at the Hall's. I was grateful that they weren't as loving or as religious because I didn't deserve it. _

_They started me at the public school nearby, Three Oaks Middle. I would walk to and from school every day, and every morning this girl with long light-brown hair would walk beside me. The two of us always walked in silence and I didn't mind. She would hide behind her sheet of hair and all I could see of her when I approached, was an ear poking out of that perfect hair. I ended up skipping a grade because of how advanced my old school was, which put me in some of this girl's seventh grade classes. She was shy, and sometimes, I would notice little bruises on her arms when the Florida sun made it too hot for her hoodie. Her name was Amanda._

_On December 8, 2003, the girl spoke to me for the first time. "It's my birthday."_

_I was shocked. This girl had been walking beside me since September and this was the first time I heard her voice. I never minded the silence; I liked it better that way. I looked at her and she looked back with the saddest expression I had ever seen on anyone's face. _

_Without saying a word, I turned and walked away. I walked back to my house only glancing back once. She had her head hung low with disappointment and continued walking down San Carlos Boulevard. to school. I ran into the house, knowing that my new foster parents had already gone to work, and started frantically searching. It was this strange, sad girl's birthday; I had to do something. I felt a connection to this girl. It's obvious that she has had a hard life and I can relate to her pain. I dug out some cake mix and frosting and got to work. While the cupcakes were baking, I made a birthday card from blue construction paper. I didn't know what her favorite color was, but she seemed to wear a lot of blue. _

_I hate the color blue. _

_By the time school was almost out, I had managed to make some messy, lumpy cupcakes with some haphazard frosting smudged on top. I ran out the door and started making my way to our school. When I ran into her, she still had her head hung down and shuffled her feet as she made her way home. I almost chickened out and ran back home, but I had to make this sad girl smile somehow. Before I fully made up my mind, she looked up. I offered her my gifts and she smiled. She took the card and one of the cupcakes._

"_Thank you."_

_Ever since that day, Amanda and I were best friends. We never asked about each other's pasts, if the other wanted to share, they would. I was her support and she was mine. Neither of us had real friends before, we couldn't relate to other children with their happy families. Even when I was with the Halls, I never got too close to anyone in fear of someone finding out about my 'evil.' Everything was different with Amanda. She didn't pry and I felt comfortable around her. We only left each other's sides when we absolutely had too. _

_She met me outside to go to school half way through our eighth grade year. She looked exhausted and I asked what was wrong. _

_Amanda had been up all night hiding from her younger brother, Zach, who had an anger problem. He had been pounding on her bedroom door all night and when she finally let him in, he swung a butcher's knife at her. She had a cut on her upper arm from his attack but she was bigger and managed to fight him to the ground. She stayed up the entire night making sure he would stay calm and not hurt himself or anyone else. Who knows where her mother and step-dad were._

_When she had explained this to me, I got angry and lost control. It wasn't as bad as when I lost control at the Hall's but I hadn't let my evil slip in so long that it shocked me and it sure as hell shocked Amanda too._

_We were sitting on the edge of a concrete culvert pipe off the side of the road. Our backpacks were sitting in front of us; my gift had pushed them into the ditch that filled with water during the rainy season with such force that made an indent in the hard, dry earth. _

_Amanda had seen what happened and there was no hiding my evil from her. She was my best friend and as close as a sister. I told her everything; I even told her about my family, something I had never told anyone about. We started studying and practicing Wiccan. When my foster family found out, they were furious and when I started getting into trouble with Amanda, they sent me away. That is when I started bouncing from home to home, center to center, but nothing kept me and Amanda apart. We continued studying Wiccan and I got really good at my gift; Amanda refused to let me use the word evil. She said no one is born evil and since I was born with this gift, it was not evil either. _

My body was pulled unwillingly back to reality, to pain. The pain pulsated through me as I tasted the air around with each gasp for breath. The air was thick with tension and fear. It was dark again and Marcellus had rejoined Dontae and Javier.

_**Author's Note…**_** Ann dreams more about Amanda than about her own twisted past because she is subconsciously trying to protect herself from the emotional pain her memories bring. You will learn more about Ann when she falls into more of a comfort zone… The agony of changing into a vampire isn't exactly the comfort zone she needs to break free of her past. **

**Just stick with me guys, I promise the Cullens will be in the story, but that comes later! **

**Reviews are better than lumpy birthday cupcakes... not quite as good as a weird new best friend though... but that's okay!**


	4. Changing

_**Author's Note…**__**Twilight**_** and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. **

**This chapter really lets you meet Marcellus, Dontae, and Javier. I don't really want to compare them to the Cullen Boys because they come in later, but I'm going to anyways. Marcellus is a lot like Emmett (big and outspoken), Javier is like a Mexican Jasper (great fighter and very hot... even though all three are sexy as hell!), and Dontae is most like Carlisle only he can enjoy a good fight (leader, compassionate, beautiful, blonde).**

**Larin20, you are awesome! Love you!**

I let my eye lids flutter open. Marcellus was back. I want to say that he was pacing, but it was much too fast to be _actual_ pacing; I think I would call it darting, or maybe pulsing, if I had to give it a name. His movements seemed to be in sync with my heart beat and the pulsating fire. He went back and forth from the window to the TV. I could now add a new occurrence with each flow of fire.

_Window._

Heart.

Lungs.

Heart.

Surge.

_TV._

Heart.

Lungs.

Heart.

Surge.

_Window._

Heart.

Lungs.

Heart.

Surge.

_TV._

Watching him became too much work while in so much pain. My eyes quickly grew tired trying to keep up with his fast pacing. Breathing also became laborious. With each breath, I could feel the fire engulf the insides of my lungs. I forced myself up and stumbled my way to a chair. I'm sure I should have felt stiff and sore after laying in the fetal position on the floor for almost 24 hours, but I couldn't seem to feel anything outside of my continuous raging fire cauterizing my insides. You would think I would get used to the pain. Like when getting a tattoo, the pain starts to go numb and you stop feeling the needle attacking your skin. Nope. On the contrary, the flames were building to sickening levels. I wanted to vomit from the pain when my heart surged this fire through my entire body.

My mental vocabulary was shrinking to just a handful of words: _fire, pain, pulse, red…_

I was gripping the armrests of the chair I had fallen into so tightly, I thought I would pull chunks of leather off into my hand.

Marcellus stopped pacing to stare at me in the chair. "I don't think she's doing too good, guys." After a moment, he seemed to shake it off and continued his pacing. "Oh well, at least she's not screaming. Don't want to disturb the neighbors."

"She stopped screaming this morning. It's a wonder no one called the cops. It sounded like she was dying," Javier said from a small table across the room.

"Technically she is dying. I think she just realized that screaming doesn't help," Dontae said with a sympathetic look etched into his face as he walked into the room. I shuttered at his comment. His demonic red eyes set so beautifully on his perfect pale face as he gazed me up and down.

_I hate sympathy. _

I glared at Dontae and he looked away, changing the subject. "So, Marcellus, please tell me why you are so worked up. You were only supposed to go hunt and you been gone for days."

I cried out in pain. Marcellus has been gone for days. How long have I been here?

Dontae continued, ignoring my interruption. "Without Javier and I, anything could have happened to you." His eyes hardened before he continued; they must be hiding something from me. "We can't afford to lose you in such a hectic time."

Marcellus let out a long, beautiful sigh, stirring the air in front of his face. "Don't worry. I just took my time hunting. I'd rather not be around during the change." The muscled man looked at me in disgust. "But when I left, I found more unfamiliar trails, lots of them. Whoever is creating newborns is being careless and they are going overboard. Scent trails were everywhere. He is planning a full out invasion on our turf and if this new guy isn't careful, we are going to have some trouble with the Volturi." Marcellus gritted his teeth. "Shit, we don't need those power hungry bastards buzzing around our ass!"

"You have such a colorful vocabulary, Marcellus," Dontae sighed. "I really wish you would watch your tongue in the presence of a lady though." Again, Dontae gazed at my convulsing body sympathetically.

I had no idea what was going on. Newborns? Volturi? And don't think I forgot about the vampire talk. I had read enough Wiccan books to believe in some crazy shit, but this is going a little too far. I pulled at my Wiccan memories and found a calming technique I had used when feeling high levels of stress for when I needed to control my gift. I fought the fire that was still plaguing my body to sit up straight, cross my legs in the chair, and close my eyes. Fighting against the pain, I placed my left hand on my chest to pull in positive energies and held my right hand up, palm facing out to force negativities away. I began to chant low under my breath:

_"Bide the Wiccan law of three,  
If you don't then Cursed you'll be,  
Spirits of my Ancestors come,  
Give me your protection, Some,  
Interfere in my life,  
And Keep me free from Stress and Strife  
So mote it be"_

After just repeating my chant twice, I felt an utter calm wash over me. The fire still raged within, but my new calm made everything bearable. I opened my eyes to find Dontae and Javier staring at me in wonder. Marcellus was still pacing. I had stopped caring if people thought me a freak a long time ago, but for them to be staring at me like this was slightly unnerving. After all, they were the ones talking about vampires. They were more of freaks than I was!

"She is going to be great," Dontae said. His lips were moving so fast and he spoke so quietly, it was a wonder I could make out his words. Javier nodded and continued to stare with admiration. What was I doing that was so odd?

Marcellus was annoyed. "We have more important things to be worrying about than this little witch girl. Someone is building an army and we are nowhere near prepared to defend ourselves. We don't even have any newborns left!" Marcellus picked up the couch sitting against the wall and threw it towards the window.

My calm had heightened my reflexes and I stretched the elasticity of my gift around the couch to stop it from hurling through the window and into the front yard. I didn't even need to think about it. In a split second, I stopped the couch in mid air and manipulated the iron elastic to cradle the couch and gently set it down. That was the first time I didn't have to use hand gestures to manipulate my strange power. It was pure instinct.

All three men stopped short in their steps.

"Ann? How did you do that?" Dontae was in complete awe. His sculpted face took on a look of surprised amazement.

"I don't know. I just can. I was born with this weird thing. It's like it's… attached to me… or something like that." I was whispering, unable to speak louder due to the pain still engulfing my body, but I knew they could hear every word, every breath, and every pathetic, weak pound of my heart. I knew they could because I could hear all these things with intensified senses.

I paused to make sure they didn't think I was completely crazy yet. When they didn't freak, I assumed that this must be normal to them. They didn't think I was crazy, so I continued. "It's like a force that is a part of me and when I was younger, it would shoot out like an elastic band when my emotions peaked. As I got older and accepted this deformity, I learned how to control it. I am in much better control of my emotions after years of practice, and I can now manipulate the elastic fibers of my gift to affect anything physical. If you can see it, I can affect it." I paused again. "I can even manipulate the light spectrum."

I was very impressed with myself by this last fact. When Amanda and I were kids, we played with my gift to test what all I could do. There was a rainbow in the sprinklers across the street and although I couldn't move the colors themselves, I could make some of the colors disappear by shielding them from the sun. This was cool because I never thought that the color blue belonged in the rainbow, childish, I know. Why should the color blue dominate the sky and still get to be a color in the rainbow. It wasn't fair so I left it out.

Javier turned to Marcellus. "I think we have found the answer to our little dilemma, brother." The two men's eyes widened as they turned to look at Dontae.

"I don't know. She will be just a newborn with as much control as her burning thirst will allow her. We would have to keep a close eye on her and I wouldn't want to put her in any danger until she is ready to handle it and control herself." Dontae rubbed his hand across his chin in thought.

"We need to try brother; she is our only chance at surviving this attack." Javier fixed his face into the most beautiful pout while he tried to win Dontae over. His tactic would have worked so much better on a female. I know I enjoyed his angelic features plagued by his demonic red eyes. Maybe I enjoyed it too much. He was intoxicating.

The fire raged through my calm and I felt my muscles tensing again. I couldn't miss anything they were saying, it seemed too important. I put my left hand over my heart, which seemed to be the source of all this fire, and my right palm out. I didn't chant this time, just breathed in deeply, exhaling slowly. I concentrated on the taste of the air. I could taste dust, and a beautifully sweet, unique scent from each of the three men-_vampires-_-in the room.

"Dontae, look, she seems to have no trouble with control." Marcellus was grinning from ear to ear. Smiling didn't suit him. It made him look even more like an angry bear. Every one of his muscles ripped through his pale flesh. I would hate to get on his bad side. "How many newborns have you encountered can actually calm themselves through the intensity of changing. She is a gift from whatever gods look after such monsters as ourselves."

"She does seem to have remarkable abilities. I still don't know though. We've never recruited a woman for battle. It seems wrong to me." Dontae was studying me carefully now.

"Okay, so we won't let her fight. She can just use her shield, or whatever the fuck it is, to keep the enemy off our turf. Problem solved." Javier had a sly look as he stared intently into my eyes. He looked at me with hungry eyes. I had never been so hypnotized by someone's gaze. His skin had the darker undertones to the pale chalkiness and his black hair was shaped into a messy partial mohawk. His full lips formed a perfect pout over his strong, sculpted jaw. His eyes were absolutely mesmerizing. They weren't a sickly, demonic red; they were more of a deeper crimson shaded by thick, black lashes. He was more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. I forgot to breathe and took a painful fiery breath when I started feeling dizzy. He gave me a sly wink and a smile. Javier was a charmer. I'm sure he got whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

I liked it.

I liked it a lot.

I tore my eyes from his, not an easy feat. "So, can someone tell me what's going on, please? What battle? I need some answers here." I was confused and needed to know more.

That was the longest night of my life. Dontae sat down in a chair next to mine and told me more about vampires than I ever wanted to know. He gave me a good background and prepared me for what I was turning into. He told me that the fire I felt spreading through my body was vampire venom and about the thirst I would soon suffer, the thirst that would control my existence from then on. This was a lot to take in. My head was still fuzzy but I concentrated on everything Dontae said.

"We only have one rule: _Keep the secret_." Dontae said this in such a solemn tone it caught me off guard. He explained the consequences of breaking the only rule and described what the Volturi in Italy would do if I broke it. Their one rule covered a lot of ground for such a seemingly simple concept. We had to carefully dispose of our prey, make sure no one ever suspected us for who we were, and never show signs of the supernatural such as strength, speed, and walking around in the daylight. The daylight one seemed odd to me. I was under the impression that vampires couldn't go out in the light, but Dontae reassured me that it wasn't like that and he would show me later what he meant.

Every thirty minutes or so, I had to stop to calm myself from the raging fire I now knew was venom coursing through my veins.

Dontae's explanation of the Volturi led right into a topic Javier wanted to discuss with me: The Vampire Wars of the South. Javier told me about how the wars came about and how they broke out of control. He had been in Mexico where he lived as a human and was changed for the purpose of fighting. Javier didn't like the idea of being used as a disposable tool and left Mexico long before the Volturi came to clean out the mess and threats of exposure. He traveled to Florida where he met Dontae. Dontae taught Javier patience and Javier taught Dontae how to battle other covens. The two had managed to secure a very small area from the Caloosahatchee River down to Estero Bay. They found Marcellus in the 1930's; with the extra strength, they were able to extend their territory down to Naples.

I wasn't as shocked as I thought I would be. None of this made sense if you were looking at it from a critical eye, but I had been through a lot in my life. I had seen a lot of bad shit happen to me and the ones I was closest to, and knew way too many human monsters that any one person would care to know. So if all that human bad shit existed, than why can't supernatural bad shit exist too? Wasn't I a freak after all? I had spent the majority of my life believing I was evil because of my gift, so wouldn't it be fitting if I actually became something evil? A vampire? A monster?

I refused to see myself as an evil being no matter what I became; I knew better than that. I had done a lot of bad shit, but I don't believe in evil. I am what I am, and in a day or so, what I become will be me. I can't change that, so I might as well just accept it and make the best out of it.

The guys were waiting for a response to everything they had told me. I looked up, calmed myself once more, and smiled. I'm not sure how I managed to smile through the pain I still felt surging through my body, but I did.

"I'm in. Teach me everything I need to know."

Javier was ecstatic at my acceptance and ran to hug me, which totally shocked me. I almost forced him away with my shield as he had called it, but I stopped when he whispered in my ear. "Welcome."

Javier never left my side that night while Dontae and Marcellus disappeared into another room. He tried to distract me from the pain with stories of different battles and vampires he knew in Mexico. Javier still loved to visit his old home.

"I have a taste for Mexican blood; it's more appealing to me. I wonder what your preference will be." He asked curiously. I shuddered at the thought, but then came to my senses.

_This is who I am now. Accept it._

Javier kept me company until the sun started to rise. He went to shut the heavy drapes. When he returned to my side, the fire began to decrease. It was still strong, but it wasn't surging as far into my limbs. Soon my hands and feet were completely pain free. Then my legs and arms were okay too. As the fire stopped surging so far from my heart, it started to concentrate on my core. I grasped my chest and kneeled over. Javier had the strangest look on his face, something between sympathy and joy. My heart slowed and struggled to pump. The fire was so strong, centered on my poor heart. It gave one last pitiful beat and I let out a low hiss trying so hard not to scream out in agony.

Then it was gone. The fire, the pain, the pulsating… it was finished.

_**Author's Note…**_** Reviews are better than our protective Dontae's sympathy, a small mental vocabulary, and three new vampire bothers.**


	5. Overwhelmed

_**Author's Note…**__**Twilight **_**belongs to Stephenie Meyer. *sighs***

The pain ended so suddenly with the last pathetic pound of my heart. It had been so excruciating and then it was just… gone. I was left only with silence. No more struggling heart, no jagged sounds of my pained breathing, even Javier's rhythmic breathing stopped; no sound came from the next room either. I listened to the eerie stillness carefully. In actuality it wasn't quiet at all. Close by, I could hear the gentle hum of the air conditioner and the sound of something scurrying around the outside of the house, a squirrel maybe. A little farther out, I could hear an alarm clock going off; a man groaned through the wretched screeching. I heard the distinct sound of flesh slamming plastic once, twice, three times. This was followed by the sound of plastic hitting drywall then smashing on imitation wood. My hearing was far more heightened than I ever dreamed.

I giggled quietly to myself. The sound of my bell-like voice startled me. How easily I was distracted. What was I just thinking? When I thought about how easily distracted I was, I then thought of how much room I had to think of different things. Then I thought of how I could think all these things in such a short period of time. I was amazed. One thought led to another and I had to backtrack my thoughts to what I had been originally thinking about. What had I laughed about in the first place? Not even a second had passed while I mused over my disorganized thoughts. There was so much room in my brain to think of everything. My mind felt limitless.

"What's so funny, Ann?" Javier asked. I looked up at him with a little smile playing across my lips. Javier gasped. "¡Ah mi, tal belleza!"

If I was still human, I would have shamelessly blushed. I had taken enough Spanish classes to know what he said. _Oh my, such beauty. _He thought I was beautiful and he said so in such a sincere, deep voice. I looked down and played with a lock of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail… very embarrassed. "I think the neighbor is going to need a new alarm clock," I recalled from one of my fleeting thoughts. The whisper from my new musical voice still amazed me.

He let out a low chuckle. "I try to block out the neighbors and all the noise they make."

I was still looking down at my feet. Everything was so clear. My converse shoes were so grungy. I had been wearing them all this time, tracking dirt through someone else's house. I was embarrassed for the second time in less than thirty seconds, but I also felt intrigued by the detail that I could now make out with perfect clarity. I could see each grain of dirt, all the tiny scuff marks on the white, rubber end, and all the individual fibers making up the black canvas covering the top of the shoe; the seams were breaking out the sides and I could see all the dirt that had collected in the loose area where the canvas and rubber met. The metal rings, where my grungy shoelaces went through, were scratched and dulled with wear and the shoe laces themselves were frayed and worn. _I need new shoes,_ I thought to myself.

My eyes wandered to the beautiful tiled floor. To a human, it would look like just plain beige tile, but I could see all the minuscule pits that gave it the slight texture and the different colors of light brown and tan mixed to give it the perfect natural color. The grout matched so perfectly to the tile. I wanted to know who had put so much of themselves into making this floor. As I scanned, I could see a fingerprint lightly pressed into the grouting. So natural, a part of the craftsman left behind. To see beauty in something so simple distracted me for about 1.673 seconds. This was amazing to me. How could anyone go through life without seeing the way I could see now? How boring the world was before my new eyes.

In the middle of the floor, I could see where I had been lying. A few strands of my red-blonde hair were on the floor by a wet stain where I had clearly been sweating. A little ways away was a small, dark red spot. I looked down at my shirt and saw more dark red.

Javier saw where my eyes were darting. "Ann, what do you feel?"

I took a breath to answer him. It was the first time I had taken a breath since my heart stopped. The action felt all wrong. There was no relief from the oxygen entering my lungs, just emptiness. The action was wrong but it allowed me to smell and taste the air around me. I didn't like it. I could feel the venom burn my throat with an insane thirst. I could taste what I thirsted for on the air, but it smelled wrong, it wasn't warm and wet.

I looked up at Javier. "I feel…" _I feel an insatiable burning in my throat to the scent of my own dried up blood. Play it cool, Ann. _"…thirsty."

Javier laughed quietly; the beautiful ring of it distracted me. "We will take care of that soon enough. Dontae and Marcellus went out for a little bit, but they will be back soon. The three of us will take you out then. It is so unusual to have an overcast day so they took advantage. It should be thunderstorms all day though. We're in luck." A smile pulled at the corner of his lips as he looked up at my eyes, amused.

My thirst had moved back in my mind as I essentially looked at Javier for the first time. There were no more weak, human shadows to hide the perfection of his face. I saw every individual strand of his perfect black hair that wasn't really black at all. My enhanced sight allowed me to see how beautiful his hair truly was. There were so many different shades of dark browns mixed with black. I was utterly distracted by how beautiful his hair made the color brown that I decided in that moment that my new favorite color was brown. My eyes followed the perfect, strong line of his jaw down to his perfect chin, up to his perfect lips where my eyes seemed to linger. I wanted to touch, to feel the perfection of his skin where it covered his jaw, his chin, his lips, his cheekbones. I then braced myself to look into his eyes; I knew I would have a hard time looking away once my eyes found his. The light glistened in the wetness of venom coating the beautiful, deep red of his irises. The light spectrum gleamed back at me and I naturally blocked out the stupid blue. I didn't need that stupid color taking away from this beauty. I was entranced by the sight of him. I couldn't steal my eyes away from his face; I didn't dare to.

A puzzled look crossed his face when he saw what I had done to the prism of light, but he shook it off and stared just as intently at me as I was at him. Without voluntary command, my hand rose to graze his cheek. I was fleetingly stunned at how quickly I moved. One moment, my hand was dangling at my side and in that same moment, it was running across his cheek, down his jaw, up to his lips. That train of thought didn't occupy me for long. I had a new craving. His skin was so soft. I was mesmerized. The feel of his marble skin was so new to me, but at the same time, it felt so natural. I couldn't tear my hand away from his face; I didn't want to end this new feeling. Javier's eyes clouded over. I was afraid he was about to pull away. I didn't want that. Instead, he reached his hand up to touch my cheek. He did so with the same incredible speed I had just used, but once his fingers reached my face, his hand slowed to a crawl. He traced my cheekbone, to my jaw, under my ear, and finally reached the back of my neck, gently running his fingers through my hair.

It started to rain outside. Big, heavy drops of water were falling against the roof. The wind picked up in typical 'Florida Rainy Season' fashion and started hurtling the thick rain against the side of the house. I love the rain. It washes away the filth leaving beautiful green behind.

"¿Cómo se siente usted ahora?" Javier's lips moved under my fingers.

How was I supposed to answer? I had to think about it. How was a feeling? I know what I was feeling, but how; I didn't know. Instead I decided to show him. I stood up on my tiptoes, slowly moving towards those perfect lips. I brought my face up to his, looking longingly at his beautiful lips. I paused to make sure I wasn't doing something he didn't want me to do. I licked my lips in anticipation, tasting my venom. I wanted to feel his mouth on mine. There was no hesitation on his face. He stared down at me and crushed his lips to mine with such speed and yearning. It was an amazing feeling, marble on marble, silk against silk. Our lips moved in perfect harmony. I pressed my body to his and he pressed back. My hands found his hair. His lips parted and I felt his tongue against mine. I decided that I had judged my new sense of smell and taste too harshly before. We were both breathing deeply, drinking in the other's scent. His was heavenly.

Javier had an iron grip on my neck. I liked it. I liked it a lot. His lips wandered to my jaw and down to my neck. His touch felt wonderful and the feeling intensified all over my body. He pushed me into a wall across the room, which didn't hold up against the force. I went through the drywall as if it were paper and cracked the support beams underneath. I was confused for a sixteenth of second before Javier had joined me against the poor wall. The support beams were barely holding us, never mind they weren't holding us. The two-by-fours gave in and we went completely through. We landed in a kitchen that I didn't pay much attention to with a slight crack. The force of me landing had cracked the tile floor. I didn't feel any pain, just the need to have Javier closer to me.

We groped at each other for what seemed like forever. I didn't want this new feeling to end. I wanted to bathe in Javier's taste, scent, and feel forever. I was so focused on Javier lying on top of me that I didn't notice our company. Marcellus and Dontae had returned. My lips had been exploring the area below his ear when Dontae made a very unnecessary sound clearing his throat. He didn't sound happy. Marcellus on the other hand was grinning; again, grinning does not look good on him. Javier was off me in less than an eighth of a second and stood a comfortable distance away. What had made me act like that? I was unnerved at the interruption and Javier's reaction. I hope shit doesn't get awkward.

Marcellus was still grinning. Dontae was pointedly focusing on anything but me. I looked down and noticed my shirt was torn and shoved up around my chest and my pants were unbuttoned. I quickly fixed myself and looked back at Dontae. _So much for not awkward…_

"It's going to be raining all day and the clouds are thick enough to take her out," Dontae said to Javier. I looked at Javier waiting for him to acknowledge me. I wanted him to give me a little look or smile, something. He had better not decide to ignore me now. I was slightly annoyed, but my burning thirst was coming back full force with the lack of a distraction.

"I shouldn't be surprised." Dontae said to Javier. "It was expected, what with us leaving her alone with you and all. I just wish you would have been more careful with the house." Dontae's eyes darted at the hole in the wall and grinned just like Marcellus. Dontae's grin was much more attractive. "Anyways, let's hurry up and satiate that thirst of yours, shall we." Dontae finally turned to look at me. I was shocked at the new brightness to his eyes. They seemed to glow red. The brilliancy in his eyes only seemed to intensify the burn in my throat.

_**Author's Note…**_** No, Ann and Javier didn't just all of a sudden fall in love… Ann had just changed; everything human she had felt before has been mega amplified and her brain is not used to being able to think and take in so much information. She is overwhelmed and has a hard time focusing on one thing in particular. One second she is overcome with thirst at the smell of dried blood and the next she is over come with lust for this beautiful vampire that just spent the last several hours comforting her.**

**Ann isn't the type to just fall in love. You will find out more about that in future chapters.**

**Reviews are better than overwhelming emotions!**


	6. Refracted Light

_**Author's Note…**__**Twilight**_** and all characters affiliated belong to Stephenie Meyer, not me. No profit is being made, yada, yada, yada…**

** I am so sorry for the late update! I get quite easily distracted and I was reading through other fan fictions and reviewing their genius funniness! ****xTeamxJedwasmettx, you are amazing with your Cullen AIM. Always makes me laugh and efficiently distracts me from writing!**

** Oh yeah, speaking of distractions, I also created a MySpace for Southern Skies. Check out the pictures, drop a comment, and check out the playlist. The playlist is really short, but if you think of a song that would go great with the story, let me know! I would love to hear your ideas!**

**.com/annabellas_southern_skies**

Javier cautiously stepped outside; he seemed reluctant to go out during the day, even with the other's assurance that they were safe. Dontae and Marcellus were already outside in the pouring rain looking very impatient, and wet. Dontae had assured me that the sunlight myths were false, but if the sunlight didn't hurt them, then why was Javier so cautious about going outside? Marcellus and Dontae weren't afraid at all.

_Should I be afraid?_ I wondered.

"Stop being a baby, Javier," Marcellus called. Javier gave him a death stare.

When we were all out in the storm, the guys formed a tight circle around me, Dontae in front and Javier and Marcellus flanking me. It was very difficult to move at human speed, but Dontae said that I had to pace myself until we were sure no one was around. I looked up at the sky with a carefully controlled movement. There was definitely enough cloud cover.

My mind started to wander again.

The start of the rainy season is my favorite time of year. The traffic starts to clear up and all the rude northerners go back home, not tough enough to handle the heat and the hurricanes of my beautiful home. Well good riddance. We don't need them littering on our beaches, congesting our roads, and using up our water supply. Shower multiple times a day and water the over fertilized yard of their winter home that they will just leave and not see for another six months. We are just in the middle of the dry season, don't worry, and that fertilizer is just polluting our watersheds, don't worry about that either. _Go home and stay there, snowbirds!_ I was surprised with myself at the random memories and thoughts that popped into my head. All too soon the memory was gone, stored in the back of my brain, distracted.

Only a second had passed as I looked up at the beautiful purple, churning clouds. The wind whipped through the air, swaying palm trees across the street. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought that the wind would knock them right over, but palm trees are structured for this kind of abuse with their enormous roots anchoring them into the ground. My soaked hair slapped my face which would have annoyed me if I was still human, but it just intrigued me now. My wet hair felt so soft against my stone face, even the rain felt nice. Normally the rain felt warm and heavy, but now, with my new lower body temperature, it felt hot and I couldn't feel the weight holding me down. The rain warmed my body, how peculiar.

"Follow our lead. We must be very careful while running." Dontae didn't turn to look at me; he was scanning the houses around us. He seemed tense and guarded. This was the first time I had seen the outside of the house. The seemingly dead grass in the yard still hadn't recovered from the dry season. I'm sure it was greedily drinking in the rain. _Thirst_. Ah, it burned my throat. I had to distract myself. Their house was an ugly yellow, almost mustard yellow. Who painted this and what were they thinking? It's hideous. A garage protruded out next to the front door making a little walkway around to the driveway, which I couldn't see yet. A dead garden was laid out on the opposing side of the walkway from the garage. I was glad to see that fertilizer wasn't used and they obviously didn't water the yard during the dry season. The adjoining lot seemed to be part of their property and it looked like they had a large, separate garage the size of a house in the space. Surrounding the two houses were giant ficus shrubs; those were sure to block the house from passerby's eyes.

Apparently Dontae was satisfied with his surroundings because he finally walked towards the driveway. When we turned the corner around the garage, I stopped cold, shocked. There, sitting in the driveway like it belonged or some shit, sat a shiny, light blue, 2008 Honda Civic. Not just any shiny, light blue, 2008 Honda Civic, but _my_ shiny, light blue, 2008 Honda Civic; this car was my baby.

I turned to look at Marcellus with a look on my face that I'm sure was priceless. Shock. Wonder. Love. Fucking amazement. This car was my baby and it was here with me, not in the dirt parking lot at FGCU at risk of being towed or having a melaleuca tree hurled at it by this storm.

I looked over at Marcellus incredulously with a stupid grin slathered across my face.

"Don't look at me. I went hunting the night we brought you home and Dontae had his hands full with you, literally." Marcellus tried his hardest to look fierce and I'm sure it worked on most, but not me. I was way too used to guys playing tough.

"Javier drove it back. Your stuff is in the car," Dontae said with a bored expression.

I turned to look a Javier with the same look on my face. "I don't know what you are smilin' so goofy at. Yeah, it drives nice… for a chick car. Not nearly as nice as my Viper SRT10 though." He shrugged nonchalantly.

_Two can play this game. If he's going to act like nothing happened, then so will I!_

"Let's get going, guys," Dontae cut in before I could defend my car. "Don't forget to follow our every move, Ann." He didn't want to mess around and waste time.

We headed east out of San Carlos at such speeds that even if it wasn't raining so hard, impeding weak human sight, I was doubtful anyone would have been able to see us anyway. We had to cross I75 so that we could get away from population and under the cover of trees. Easy. Traffic was light, so we just waited until it was clear and jumped. The feeling was amazing. I let my body take control when I ran, not holding back.

No one was out, but the three of them kept a tight formation around me just in case I got hit by human scent. As if they could do anything anyways. They were technically powerless against my shield. Once we were past the university and in sufficient tree cover, the formation slackened the tiniest degree. The three men never took their eyes off me and I knew they didn't trust me.

"We are going to take you out past Immokalee. The clouds are still thick out there, but it isn't raining quite as hard. I caught a scent of a couple campers out there this morning. It's secluded enough for your first time; we don't want to be attracting any unnecessary attention." Dontae seemed very distracted, almost like he was searching for the perfect spot. We were past Immokalee, running along the border of Alligator Allie.

I had driven to the east coast for enough concerts in West Palm Beach and Pompano to know that we were getting close to the center of the state. If we kept this up, we were going to run straight through the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation. The thought of the reservation reminded me that there was a motocross event going on next week. I had been dying to go ever since I found out about it a couple months ago and now I couldn't. The thought made me so mad. The reservation had the largest lighted motocross track in all of the United States, 85 acres! I love dirt-biking and I was going to miss it! The others seemed to notice my change in attitude for they tightened formation again.

It seemed that as soon as the formation was tightened, the guys backed off again. They looked at each other, then at me. I was confused. We were still outside the reservation when they spread out around me. When I took a breath to ask what they were doing, it hit me and everything made sense. It was a warm, wet odor, completely different from the warm, wet rain. This scent set my throat ablaze.

I know I was supposed to be following Dontae's lead, but he had backed off and this scent was killing my throat. I needed to slake this thirst. I needed to soothe this fire. My instinct took over and the closer to the pulsating warmth, the more painful my thirst became. I couldn't handle it. I spotted a hiker a few hundred yards ahead. I closed the gap between myself and the faceless hiker so fast, he didn't even see me coming. My jaws clamped around his neck where the pulse was strongest and my teeth sliced through the tender flesh of my victim. I couldn't bare look at his face or imagine who he may be. Beneath my thirst, I felt guilt, but I had to block that nonsense out to control the fire in my throat. This man was large and muscular for a human; his blood tasted divine. He barely had time to struggle beneath my hold and not even one gurgled scream had time to escape his lips before his life ended. As I drank him dry, I felt the warmth of his blood spread through me reaching even into my fingers and toes.

I was still thirsty when I finished off the man so I straightened up and reached my gift out, feeling for another life nearby. I felt Dontae, Javier, and Marcellus as my gift passed over them, but they weren't what I was looking for. I'm sure I could have used my super sensitive new sense of smell to find more prey, but I didn't particularly enjoy the burning that human blood caused in my throat. I found what I was looking for; my gift found another hiker about 50 yards north. I took off after the new prey. I hated the feeling of being followed by the others, so I made sure to keep my gift up, protecting me while I fed.

The second hiker wasn't nearly as big as the last. He was a scrawny man and I refused to look at his face not wanting the guilt to return. His blood didn't taste as good as the last either, but it was still satisfying and when I finished him off, I still felt the burning in my throat, but it wasn't as bad. I felt… full.

I sensed the others close by so I went to meet them.

"Feel better?" Marcellus asked with that crazy grin on his face. I simply nodded, rather curtly if I may say so myself.

"I found these two out here earlier and I knew they would be perfect for us. They were secluded and it was just the two of them. Now I will teach you how to take care of the bodies. We must always be careful to not leave evidence." Dontae was my teacher and showed me everything I needed to know. He was very impressed at how 'tame' I was acting. "Most newborns don't have the focus and control you seem to possess. I am amazed to say the least."

Just as Dontae was finishing up my lesson, the clouds started to shift in true Florida fashion. It was still raining, but the clouds were moving out and patches of blue sky could be seen. I knew Florida well enough to know that the weather changes rapidly and I knew what was going to happen. The four of us stared intently at the sky, waiting. What was going to happen? What does the sun really do to vampires? I didn't have long to wait before the sun finally broke through the clouds.

As I watched everything unfold, I instinctively pushed my gift out to protect us. I had been doing this for years without even thinking about it, always concentrating on the blue. After a quick inspection of my skin to be sure that nothing had happened I looked over at the others. They looked at each other astonished. They were seemingly normal in the sunlight thanks to my gift. They carefully inspected each other to make sure what I had done was real. You would think I had grown a second head buy the way they were staring at me.

"What- how?" Dontae was having trouble forming a coherent question. Marcellus's smug face took great pleasure in Dontae's loss for words.

"I told you man," he said pounding Dontae's shoulder. "She is the answer to every one of our problems." He wore that stupid grin again, and hell, that stupid grin was growing on me. It was charming in its own way.

"How did you do that?" Dontae finally spit out; his mouth gaped open. I figured I would give him the technical version of what I just did; it would be easier than trying to explain my gift again.

"I just made it so that that wavelength couldn't hit us," I said so matter-of-factly that I surprised myself. "It's actually really easy; all I have to do is concentrate on what makes up the color spectrum - white light - and on the different wavelengths which are created within the white light. On one side, the red-side, of the rainbow is infrared rays, then visible rays, followed by the purple side, ultraviolet rays. Ultraviolet rays are stronger and what I assumed could hurt us, so that's what I blocked. I focused on the shorter frequency of the ultraviolet wavelengths so that I could block them out."

There was still no response and I had no idea what they were thinking. Javier and Dontae kept their faces composed while Marcellus continued to smirk.

"Honestly, it's a lot easier than just blocking out blue. I've been doing that since the 9th grade. I took chemistry where I learned all about the color spectrum and took that knowledge to test whether or not I could affect wavelengths. You see, blue is around the 450 frequency, so I had to concentrate on just blocking out that particular set of wavelengths. I'm not crazy, I was just bored and wanted to see if I could do it. Anyways, this is easier because I'm not just blocking one frequency, but all the frequencies greater than 450."

"It's true. I saw her do it earlier. She can just… block out the… light, but she's not blocking the light in a way to cause a shadow just to block a color." Javier looked so confused, but I was glad that he was making a reference to what happened between us earlier. He wasn't totally ignoring what had happened.

"That doesn't make sense. How can you block out a frequency? It's impossible." Dontae was a man of science and did not want to believe what I could do. He was asking me about the theory behind the actual act. This was the part I wanted to avoid.

"That is a little more complicated and I'm not sure if I can describe it right. You see, it's more of just imagining the wavelengths. I can't see them or feel them like I can a couch or a tree, but I know they are there. Since they are there and they exist, I can take my knowledge of them and picture it in my mind's eye. Does that make sense?"

"Not at all…"

"Chill out Dontae, and stop questioning. The point is, we are standing here, in the sun, and nothing happened." Marcellus was thrilled.

The sun warmed my skin beyond what I felt from the blood. I looked up to admire the beauty. I had never truly looked at the sun before. I hadn't been able to with my weak human eyes. The light was spectacular. White light swirled around the sun, sending off different colors of the rainbow. The colors swirled around the giant ball of fire in the sky. I was mesmerized; I was always amazed at how it can rain and the sun can still shine. Each individual drop of rain caught the light and sent sparkles of red and blue and green out into more little mini-swirls of light.

I don't know how long I stared up into the sun and watched rain fall around me. I was only broken from my little world when I felt a silken hand run across my cheek. I felt instantly soothed and closed my eyes at the feel of his touch. I opened my eyes again to make sure it was real.

"Let's go home Ann." Javier's eyes burned into mine. I took his hand and he kissed every one of my knuckles before turning to leave.

_**Author's Note…**_ There is still so much more I want to write in this chapter, but I've decided to break it up for you. Don't forget to check out the MySpace page! .com/annabellas_southern_skies

**Reviews are better than refracted light!**


	7. Walking Out

I'm sure Amanda was freaking out by now and of course my phone was dead. I could only imagine the countless panicked voice mails she must have left. I hope she didn't report me missing or some shit. I can take care of myself and she should know that by now. The last thing I needed was for cops to be looking for me.

I dug around my car in false hopes of finding a phone charger. I knew I wouldn't find one; I was always so meticulous about keeping my car spotless. I didn't even have a change of clothes. I had been messy with my kill and got blood on the white tank top I had been wearing since the canoe trip. Thankfully Dontae, the smallest of the three men, gave me a shirt to wear, but I couldn't continue like this; I had to go home. I needed my own things.

I couldn't even remember how long I had been away from home. How many days had passed since the canoe trip? I shuffled through my weak human memories searching for a clue. Changing had been so painful and I had no idea how long I had blacked out for. I know that I spent the majority of the time passed out, dreaming to escape the pain, but for how long? I decided not to concentrate on how much time had passed and instead on the day of the canoe trip.

It was like looking through cloudy glass.

_It was a Monday. The semester was already over but my biology class was going to meet one last time to go on a canoe trip through Fish Trap Bay. Like every Monday, Amanda woke me up at seven. She works for a landscape design company and I babysat for her during the day. She worked five days a week and had night classes on Tuesday and Thursday. I also worked five days a week but I worked nights at a sub shop and had class Monday and Wednesday nights, my two days off. We arranged our schedule so that someone would almost always be there to watch Emma. The only time we had to take her to 'gramma's' was when Amanda was in class and I was at work. Even though we tried to avoid relying on Amanda's mother too much, it was still nice to have the option of having her watch Emma when we couldn't. Between school and work, Amanda and I barely had time for anything else. _

_That morning, like every other morning, we sat in our makeshift dining room which was just the corner of the living room next to the kitchen. We lived in a shitty duplex at the end of Miami Boulevard. It wasn't the best neighborhood, but the rent was cheap and we lived close to the school and 'gramma's' house so I couldn't complain. At least I was away from foster care. I still had someone check up on me every other month to make sure I was doing alright or whatever the fuck they check for, like they really give a damn. _

_Amanda was in a great mood that morning. The semester was over. Even the fact that we were down to our last pack of cigarettes didn't bother her. We sat drinking our Pepsi -we didn't drink coffee- and talked about what we were going to do over break until she had to leave. Emma was still sleeping and wouldn't be up until eight-thirtyish. _

_My life had become very routine. I took a shower and dressed for the day. By that time Emma, who is eleven months old, would start to wake. I would change her and feed her breakfast. We would then play. She was very aware of her surroundings and intelligent for a child so small. The only word she had said yet is "bah" which in 'Emma talk' meant bye. I keep trying to get her to say auntie but she won't. _

_She drools. A lot. I have never seen a kid drool so much in my life. The doctors say it is just because she's teething and should stop by the time she's 16 months or so. _

_I hope so. We go through a shirt an hour with the amount of drool coming out of this girl's mouth. She is a fountain; it would gross me out if she wasn't so damn cute._

_After play time, Emma took a nap and I started the laundry. I didn't have any work to do seeing as school was out so I took out my abused copy of _Wuthering Heights_. Amanda hates this book, but I think it's romantic. Catherine and Heathcliff are disgusting people, yet through it all, they still can love. It is a story about real life and human nature. Humans are disgusting, selfish, and malignant and this book does not sugar coat the awful truth of it all. _

_After the nap, I fed Emma lunch and put her in her walker as I cleaned our makeshift house. She giggled along to the obnoxious rap I played while cleaning. I'm sure those stiffs who write the baby books wouldn't approve of the music we let her listen to, but it makes her happy so fuck them. I would do anything to hear that beautiful baby laugh. "Ay Bay Bay" by Hurricane Chris came on, her favorite song and she got so excited, you'd think she met the real life Winnie the Pooh. I swear her first phrase is going to be "ay bay bay" and I'll be right there with the video camera to send it in to _America's Funniest Home Videos_. I love that little girlie. _

_Amanda got home at three-thirty like always. She sat on the counter of our tiny kitchen while I cooked us a late lunch and told me about her day. After we finished eating, I left for my five 'o clock class for the last time. _

"_I'll still be up when you get home. We need to do something tonight to celebrate summer," Amanda called after me._

"_Sure, I might be home a little later than usual. I'll call you." I kissed Emma and walked out._

A little later than usual was a definite understatement, I don't even remember how long ago that was.

I walked into the house where Marcellus and Dontae were talking at the dining room table. Javier had gone on his own hunting trip. The mess we had made earlier was still there. Drywall littered the tile floor and splintered wood could be seen scattered in the kitchen. I was responsible for the damage and I felt like I should be blushing, but thankfully, I couldn't. Instead, I giggled to myself at the memory.

_Javier's lips._

_His hands._

_His body pressed against me._

_On top of me._

I was distracted, always distracted, from my main purpose of coming inside and I felt so bad about the mess that I used my gift to sweep up a little. I tried to stand a broken two-by-four up to make the poor, dead wall look better, but without the support of my gift, it just fell back down with a 'clank' against the floor.

"Sorry," I muttered to the others. Dontae looked up and nodded. He seemed bored and didn't care at all about the mess, which made me feel relieved. I looked down at my borrowed shirt. The sight of Dontae's light silk shirt hanging loosely off me, reminded me why I came inside.

"I need to go home."

Dontae's bored expression tuned to shock, even Marcellus quirked an eyebrow at this. Why was I always shocking them? It didn't seem like that strange of a comment.

"You know you can't do that. It is too dangerous," Dontae managed to say. "Don't you have a roommate? You would kill her." He was stern with his warning, always in control, the leader.

I thought about how instinct completely took over me earlier in the woods. Could that happen with Amanda and the baby? No, I can control myself, especially with them. There was no way I would ever kill her or Emma.

"You're wrong. I can control myself." I wasn't going to step down to him. He couldn't make me.

"Nonsense, you are only hours old. It is impossible to control such a thing while so young," Dontae shrugged it off as if it was nothing. Common sense.

"You know Dontae," Marcellus said quietly. "Most newborns can't even reason like she can. I believe she is more different than we think." He winked at me. I growled under my breath knowing they both could hear.

"I don't care how different she is, no newborn can handle being around humans."

Why was I standing around listening to them talk about me like I wasn't even here? The sun was out even though it was still raining. I could protect myself and they couldn't follow me even if they wanted to. This thought registered in a matter of half a second and I turned for the door. I blocked out the guys behind me and used my gift to keep them away as I walked outside. I didn't turn to see if they tried to follow. I didn't care… _Let them follow me_.

I got in my car and drove to the end of the street. I knew exactly where I was. This was only a few streets away from where I lived when I first met Amanda and two streets west of Miami Boulevard. I drove all the way to the end of the road where our duplex sat and got out. Amanda's beat up Chevy truck was in the driveway. I got out of my car and stood there. I could hear her heart beat from inside. Close by, I heard another heart, smaller, but still as strong as her mother's. _Winnie the Pooh_ was on the TV and I'm pretty sure I could hear every drag Amanda took of her cigarette. They were long and forced, followed by silence and then her long exhale. Amanda was stressed and I bet she chain smoked through an entire carton of Reds since I had gone missing.

I decided she would get lung cancer if I waited any longer so I walked through the door of our pathetic, make shift house.


	8. No Handlebars

_**Author's Note**_**… Stephenie Meyer owns **_**Twilight**_**… not me…**

The burn in my throat intensified as I stepped through the door and into the cramped space of our living room. Emma sat, bouncing in her walker, watching _Winnie the Pooh_, and Amanda was chain smoking in front of an over flowing ash tray at the table just as I thought. I could hear every wet, warm pound of their hearts. The scent and the sound brought the sight of those hikers back to me in a flash of warm flowing blood, running down my throat, soothing the ache. The sound and distinct scent of Amanda and Emma's blood reminded me of my thirst, but did not make me crave their blood. It made me realize how much I missed them. The burn reminded me of how much they mean to me and how I could never lose them. Amanda and Emma are the only family I have. I couldn't bear to hurt them even though the thirst was ripping at my throat. I pushed it back in my mind, battling to control myself because I had to. I had to do it for Amanda and Emma. I would never hurt them.

I love them.

I didn't restrain any of my movements even though I knew that my new speed would alarm Amanda. Dontae's one rule to keep the secret didn't seem to be important around her; I knew I could trust Amanda.

I ran, without holding back, to Amanda and wrapped her in a tight hug until I heard something in her back pop.

"Ann," Amanda choked. "You're going to break me!"

I let go immediately, not wanting to hurt her, and darted to Emma to make sure she was okay. I inspected her up and down, but she acted as if nothing was wrong, giggling at how fast I was moving. She pointed at my face with a curious look and just then, I realized that I didn't even know if I looked the same. Emma recognized me, but there must be something different. Thankfully I didn't scare her with the change.

I ran to my room for fresh clothes. I had the back, smaller room while Amanda and Emma shared the front master bedroom. Everything was exactly how I had left it last Monday. The tiny desk beside the door was cluttered with books that I needed to take back to the campus bookstore. Across the room, under my broken window, clothes were strewn over the bed that I never bothered to make. A few shoes had tumbled out of my tiny closet next to the bed. My room wasn't dirty, just a little unorganized. It wasn't much, but this room had been my sanctuary for the past several months. It was the only place I could truly be myself and I didn't know when I was going to feel that way again.

Forgetting why I came in here, I straightened everything up, made the bed, and put my clothes away. It all took about two and a half seconds; my speed still surprised me. I stepped back letting my eyes wander over things. Everything I owned was in this room. Amanda and I didn't have much and we struggled to get by, but it was better than living in a group home or with a foster family that thought they could do society a favor by taking me in and 'making me a better person.' They were all full a shit and didn't give a damn about me.

I sighed looking at my bed. I should be exhausted. It's been days since I last slept in that bed. So much has happened since then. I was still wearing Dontae's shirt. His sweet honey scent didn't fit. Honey didn't belong in this house. Vanilla, tobacco, cloves, and that distinct baby smell belonged here, not honey.

The new scent threw off the feeling of safety and freedom Amanda and I built here. I hated it. I ripped the stupid honey shirt off and dug around my closet for something that smelt right. Dressed in a fresh blue tank top and white cheer shorts, I decided I had better face Amanda.

When I returned to the living room, Amanda's eyes were wide with shock, a cigarette just burning down in her hand, leaving a trail of ashes. I was surprised she didn't chase me into the other room demanding answers, but the look on her face told me she couldn't move.

"Mandi?" My ringing singsong voice startled me and must have startled her too. She looked down at the cigarette burned out in her hand and quickly shoved it into the ashtray.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts before looking back at me. "Your eyes…" That was all she could manage before her face went back to blank shock, just staring at me in disbelief.

I walked to the mirror hanging on the wall next to where Amanda sat. The eyes that met mine in the reflection were so foreign I felt a snarl rise in my chest before I realized that they were mine. Dontae, Javier, and Marcellus had beautiful deep red eyes. Mine were sickly, glowing red. They made me look like a monster. I shut my eyes, trying to will them away. It didn't work. I was too enthralled by how different I had become.

When I was finally able to look away from my demonic eyes, I noticed how beautiful I was. I had always been pale, but my complexion now was like beautiful porcelain. The scar I had above my right eye was gone and my face was clear of all blemishes. I reached a hand up to feel my new face. How strange; it was soft and hard all the same.

I looked down at my arms and legs. All my scars were gone. The scar that ran the length of my upper leg from a nasty dirt bike accident, the scar across my shoulder from a knife fight at the movie theater, the scar on my forearm from my hand going through my bedroom window while trying to open it, the scars on my wrists and thighs from my depression. They were all gone.

_I killed my family… The pain hit deep. I never let my mind wonder to them… the Halls…_

"I knew you would hate me if I called the police and reported you missing," Amanda hedged carefully, braking through my thoughts and saving me from a road I didn't want to go down.

"What did you do? No one is looking for me are they?" I knew Amanda would be worried about me, but she should have known that I would be fine.

"I didn't do anything. I just called your friend from class, Marlo. She said that when she dropped you off, you were fine. So… I called Deputy Tillotson." I was so relieved she had just called Bob. He was our middle school and high school resource officer. He knew us pretty well basically just because of all the trouble we would get into and we used to hang out in his office when we didn't feel like going to class.

"I didn't report you missing or anything because I value my life and knew that when you turned up, you would probably kill me for reporting it." She was still cautious and I knew she was right. I didn't need anyone looking for me and taking me into custody for twenty-four just because they felt like it. I hate the system and I hate cops - well most cops, some are pretty fucking cool. "I was worried and he checked for any accidents and checked arrests and hospitals for you. When he came back with nothing I was still worried, but decided that you would turn up when you were ready." She had the most heartbreaking look on her face.

"Thank you," I said softly, looking down at my feet. I'm not sure if she even heard me. After several moments, she finally broke the silence.

"What happened to you? Where have you been for the past four days?" Amanda's brow wrinkled in concern. "What happened to you, Ann?"

I knew I could trust Amanda with the secret; after all, she was no stranger to the supernatural. I told her everything that had happened starting with the man in the parking lot. She sat patiently and listened to my story, gasping in all the right places. I skimmed over the gritty details of the pain and skipped the hikers from this morning all together. I didn't need to give her a heart attack. Best if we eased into this whole thing. I did however give her the skinny on Javier.

"When do I get to meet these guys? They sound amazing," Amanda said playfully. I knew talking about a cute guy would distract her, but honestly, I just told her I was attacked and have been going through the process of changing for four days now. She was taking this news way too lightly. I was disgusted at her lack of concern with the fact I wasn't _human_ any longer.

"Amanda, they are vampires. I am a vampire. Stay on track!" Sometimes she is so infuriatingly annoying, but before I had too much time to get sufficiently annoyed with her short attention span, I remember something totally off topic. "Oh, look what I can do now." I reached the elastic of my gift out and wrapped it around a chair at the table, lifting it without even moving my hands for support. My gift was so effortless now. "My gift must have become stronger when I changed."

"So you can ride your bike with no fucking handlebars. So what? Now you need to stay on track." Amanda crossed her arms over her chest and just glared at me. I hated the no handlebars joke, but I guess I deserved it for being hypocritical.

We sat in silence for a while. Amanda lit another cigarette and out of habit, I reached for the pack on the table. Amanda quirked an eyebrow, but I ignored her and lit it up. The smoke filling my lungs didn't bring the same relief and it felt aberrant. The smoke swirled around the empty space and although it wasn't relaxing, I still enjoyed the familiar taste and smell.

"So what are we going to do?" Amanda asked. "You can't just go out with your eyes looking like that."

"I don't know," I said honestly. There was so much that I still didn't know. I put the cigarette out without finishing it. "You know, this really is a disgusting habit." I smirked at her.

"Coming from the smoking vampire, I'll take it into consideration," she said sarcastically.

I decided to ignore her little crack and reached my gift out absentmindedly. I found what I was looking for and picked Emma up from her walker. I was slow and careful about moving Emma as she floated gently over the floor. I raised her a little and let her wiggle in the air. It made her laugh. That little girl loved it when I didn't shit like this. Amanda on the other hand was a different story and she seemed very irritable this morning, probably from the stress of worrying about me for four days straight.

"I hate when you do that to my child. What if you drop her or squish her or something?" Amanda snapped at me.

I understood her concern, but I felt more in control of my gift than I have ever before in my life. I gently bounced Emma and her soft giggles reassured me that she was just fine.

"If she throws up, you're cleaning it up." Amanda always said shit like that and Emma has only thrown up on me once. It wasn't even that bad. It was a little spit up, not a big deal.

I sighed and thought about what I was going to do? I probably didn't have a job anymore, seeing as I haven't shown up to work since last weekend. I had three months before classes started back up, but I couldn't hide forever.

As I brought Emma to sit on my knee at the table, it occurred to me how easy everything was. I calmed myself with no problem while changing, I can control myself around Amanda and Emma, and my gift is so much stronger.

"Do you want to meet them?" I asked Amanda. I knew I could protect Amanda from them, but I still had a need to be with them. I felt bound to them. They didn't create me, but they didn't kill me either.

Her eyes lit up as she stood. "I thought you'd never ask," she said smiling. As she took Emma from my lap, she leaned down and hugged me. The sudden closeness of her warm body made me gasp, sending a scorching pain down my throat. "I missed you."

In that moment, I knew I would never hurt Amanda. She meant too much to me and it would kill me if I lost her.

"Plus, I was getting really sick of asking my mother to babysit every day," Amanda said quickly. She wasn't very big on showing emotions. "She's acting like I owe her my soul for asking her to watch Emma for a few days while I was at work. You'd think she'd just be happy to spend time with her granddaughter." I sat at the table watching her fume over her mother, Pam. I knew she loved Pam, but she rarely admitted it and they hardly got along.

"Are we going or not? I want to meet these guys that you seem so taken with!" With that she marched out the door and I had no choice but to follow.


	9. Brewing Tension

Chapter 8-

I let Amanda's truck idle in the driveway as we sat outside the ugly yellow house. I felt kind of pathetic just sitting out here in this noisy thing. Amanda thought it was too much of a hassle to move Emma's car seat from her truck to my car even though I'm sure I could have done it in a matter of seconds. She just wanted to take her truck. It was a wonder she even let me drive it. I laughed inwardly as Amanda still hadn't grasped my true abilities yet. I was still the same old me to her and it was refreshing to feel that still.

It was late evening by now, the sun setting behind the trees, and I had my gift firmly in place around the truck, acting as a shield. After Javier had called my gift a shield the other night, knew instantly that he was right. I could manipulate this dome of elastic steel to do anything I wanted it to do. No one was going to hurt Amanda and Emma while I was around. I reached another layer of my gift out, using it to sense anyone's presence inside. The elastic phased through the outside of the house to the rooms within. I could sense everything under my gift. Inanimate objects such as furniture and walls felt like empty, solid mass, living things such as plants and animals sent off their own subtle unique energy, but people had an energy all their own. The better I knew a person, the stronger and more familiar their energy felt. As my gift stretched out over the interior of the house, I felt them, their energy. Dontae, Marcellus, and Javier were all sitting in the dining room. I listened closely, blocking out the sound of the soft rain and neighbors in their houses.

"She's back," I heard Marcellus say from inside. I wanted to hear more, but they were quiet, almost as if they were waiting for something. Could they be waiting for me? Did they know I would come back to them? I was stupid to think otherwise. I knew once I told Amanda, she would want to know every aspect of my 'new' life. It was a little daunting to keep her from it. Maybe they sensed this before, but here I was standing in front of the ugly yellow house, baiting my time before I had to face them.

"Are we going in?" Amanda asked impatiently.

"Aren't you at all worried? You _did_ hear the part that they are vampires, didn't you?" I answered, looking back at her with a pointed smirk. I was skeptical at her impatience. Amanda was stubborn and never went along with anything I said. Of course the one time I wanted her to be extra cautious, she would dive right in.

Amanda turned to face me full on in her seat with a strange look on her face. "Ann, I trust you." Her face broke into a grin then. "Plus, I have a good feeling about this. It's time you trusted me." I really wish I knew what she was thinking. How does she know everything will be fine? Her confidence was astounding and naïve all wrapped into one.

"Let me go in first," I said shutting the truck off and opening my door.

"Bring your friend in with you, Ann. She's safer in here with us than out there with _them_." This time it was Dontae's soft voice that came from inside. His statement confused me. What did he mean by _them_? Panic and an animalistic urge to fight filled my chest. The reality of something more dangerous than the three inside and myself was out here and threatening to hurt the ones I loved. I felt my body seethe as I scanned the area close to the house looking for anything out of the ordinary. The sun was just about to set and I decided to just get Amanda and Emma inside. I tested my shield around the truck, satisfied with the barrier I had set up for their safety.

"There is no privacy around here," I mumbled to myself, focusing on anything but what might be watching us at this very moment.

"What did you say, Ann?" Amanda asked, completely clueless that the guys could hear our every sound inside.

Right then, as to confirm my frustration to the lack of privacy, I heard the softest laugh. I recognized it instantly as Javier's and knew Amanda was right. Everything would be fine; I just needed to calm down. I smiled to myself. Javier's laugh was sickeningly infectious.

"Let's get inside, Mandi."

"I thought you were going in first?" she asked, finally revealing some of the worry she should have been feeling. She had better not get cold feet after all that shit.

"I think it would be better if we all stayed together," I said, trying to remain calm. I raced around the hood of the truck to help get Emma from the back seat. Once we were all out, I wrapped an arm protectively around Amanda, testing my shield once more and reaching another layer out again to sense the presence of others. This time, instead of searching the house, I searched the perimeter and houses surrounding. As the elastic crept over the ground, I felt the human neighbors, but they weren't who I was looking for. I stretched the elastic out further to the surrounding streets and felt the cold presence of vampires, a lot of them. This must be the growing army Javier told me about the other night. Immediately I felt uneasy and now I wanted to be in the safety of the house even more.

I rushed us all to the house, losing the calm I had managed to pull over myself. Amanda sensed my change in attitude and gripped Emma tighter to her chest.

"Ann?" she asked cautiously. "What's wrong?"

"Don't worry about it, you're safe with me," I said as reassuringly as I could. Under the outer layer of my gift, I could feel the army of vampires growing restless as more joined them. They were surrounding us. I kept the inner shield strong.

I yanked the front door open and pushed Amanda inside. Dontae and Javier sat calmly at the table across the room while Marcellus stood perfectly still, leaning against the back French doors, looking out, his face hidden from my sight. The tension in the room was thick and about a thousand questions that needed to be answered popped into my head.

"What is going on out there?" I demanded as soon as the door was securely shut behind the three of us.

"Ah, this must be your roommate, Amanda," Dontae said courteously, completely ignoring me. "It's nice to finally meet you." He held out his hand to greet Amanda.

Amanda nodded in response. "You too," she replied meekly not taking his hand but blushing. He smiled timidly and returned his hand to his side.

What is this all about? Dontae was acting as if we were just stopping by for a social visit; I guess that was the case when I first got here, but now that I know that we are most likely about to be attacked by an army of fucking vampires, the situation had changed dramatically. Why was he acting like this, as if I talked nonstop about Amanda? I didn't even say that much about her; I simply mentioned in passing that I had a roommate.

Javier must have sensed my frustration for he finally addressed the issue that had me so worked up. "The army has grown and is becoming more organized than we had considered possible. Whoever has been creating them, has been building this army for some time."

I looked over to Amanda to see how she was reacting to Javier's words, but she was still smiling at Dontae. I just realized that hardly two seconds had passed and Javier had spoken too quickly and much too quietly for her human ears to hear. Javier noticed where my attention had gone.

"It's up to you to decide what to tell your roommate," he said in the same way as before, going unheard by Amanda's weak human ears.

"What is the little one's name?" Dontae asked Amanda in a normal tone, keeping her distracted for the time being. I crossed my arms and gave him a mean look.

"I plan on having her stick around for a while so she might as well hear what's going on." I replied, confidant that Dontae was keeping her attention away from me and Javier's seemingly silent conversation.

"If that's what you feel is best," Javier replied, his face turning serious.

"Ann," Marcellus spoke in a normal tone from his spot at the back doors. "Is your shield up?" His body hadn't moved an inch since I arrived, but I could tell he was rigid with tension.

"Yes, I've had it up since I arrived. Why, is something wrong?" I tested the outer boundary of my shield to see if there were any breaks.

"No, that's why I was wondering. I can feel the newborn's hunger for battle, but they are staying away," Marcellus said. "I couldn't conceive it possible for them to stay away, especially with these humans so close to their ordered target."

"What do you mean you can 'feel' them?" I asked, completely confused by his statement.

"Marcellus has a gift for sensing animosity," Dontae explained. "It's an excellent tool for predicting attacks from the neighboring covens."

"So do you know who is leading this attack?" I asked.

"We believe it's the clan from the East Coast, Miami area. They have been growing fast and if they try to attack us here, now, the Volturi won't be too happy." Dontae was calm as always; it was kind of annoying. "If we're right, that means there are four main leaders and we are estimating their army to number around thirty."

"There are too many for them to possibly be organized. As long as we come up with a game plan, we should have no problem destroying them. That's where you are going to come in, Ann." Javier was just as calm as Dontae. "How strong is that thing you can do?"

"It's as strong as it needs to be, as strong as I make it. What do you want me to do?" Javier had told me about the battles for territory and told me that I would get in on some action that night I had changed. Part of me was excited, but part of me was worried sick about Amanda and Emma. I wish I had kept them out of this whole mess.

I looked over at her; she was simply looking around at the three men, a slight crease forming between her brows. She was confused and held Emma tighter in her arms.

"We need to hold them off for a little while. It would be a miracle if they haven't been seen yet." Marcellus raised an arm above his head and leaned on it against the door. "Do you think you can force them into one area?" he asked me.

"Yeah, sure. Where do you want them?"

"There is undeveloped land just north of here. Do you know where I'm talking about?" Dontae asked.

I knew the area well. "The land just north of Alico Road?" I asked, almost certain of where he was talking about.

"That's the spot." Dontae nodded. "I need you to force them into a group in there. Can your gift stretch that far?" Alico was about two miles away, but my gift had become so much stronger since I changed and I was almost sure that my gift would work that far. Just in case, I reached another layer out, testing my distance, keeping the two shields I already had in place up.

"Yeah, that would be no problem." I focused my foremost attention on my gift and molded the second layer of the shield around the impending threat, forcing them into a group and pushing them north. The farther I pushed them away, the more I could see Marcellus relax.

"There are a few others on our side that could help. We sent them away while you were changing, but we need them now." Marcellus turned away from the door for the first time since I had arrived. "I will get them. We need to hold the army off till I get back and have a solid plan." With that, he bolted out the back door and disappeared.

"Will everything be okay?" Amanda finally spoke. Her voice cracked and was barely above a whisper.

Dontae stood to comfort her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Everything will be just fine. You and the child will stay here with Ann."

"I'm not going with you?" I questioned, my eyes darting from Dontae to Javier and back again. "I thought I was going to help. You can't take on thirty vampires on your own!"

"Ann, we can't risk the Volturi finding out about you." Dontae moved to the spot Marcellus had been standing moments before and leaned his back against the door. "You will need to control your shield from here. If anyone sees you and survives to tell the tale, the Volturi would surely find out. There is no way we are going to be able to keep them away."

"Do you remember what I told you about them?" Javier asked. "Aro can look into minds and if he finds out about you, he will want to keep you for himself. He collects rare gifts, and yours is the most rare I have ever seen or even heard of, not to mention your incredible control."

"I guess it's best if I stay here and protect Amanda." I pouted, wanting to fight. I was still angry that I couldn't go, but at the same time, I couldn't leave Amanda alone.

"Now you must listen closely to what I need you to do." Dontae was back to business again. "You've described your gift as a shield. Within the shield can you sense our presence?"

"Yes, I'm familiar with each of you and can feel your presence. Why?"

"There isn't enough of us to take on all thirty of them. I was thinking that you could bring a couple of them into your shield at a time and keep the rest trapped. That way we can dismember them without the danger of being ambushed. Do you think you can do that from this distance?"

"Yeah, it would take some concentration, but I'm sure I could do it." I looked to Javier; he had a slight smile dancing on his lips. My thoughts were thrown to earlier today; it seemed like so long ago since we had gone through the wall. I averted my gaze to the wall in question and was shocked to see the hole had been patched already. I was too distracted when I walked in earlier and hadn't even noticed. A quiet snicker came from behind me. Javier caught me in the memory.

I looked at him and I'm sure I should have been blushing. My eyes wandered on their own to his perfect smiling lips. How could anyone have such inviting lips? Mentally slapping myself for being so distracted, I turned my attention back to Amanda and Dontae.

"So I'll just stay here with Amanda when Marcellus gets back?" I asked, trying to get my mind off those perfect lips.

"Yes," Dontae turned to look out the back doors. "When we return, we'll have to send your friend and the baby somewhere safe and leave for a few days." I opened my mouth to argue, but Dontae was too quick. "The Volturi will be looking for all parties involved and hopefully they won't look too hard for us. I am depending on them thinking that it was just the other coven and not suspect we had anything to do with it. The three of us have stayed under the radar pretty well and I'm confident that everything will be fine as long as we are careful and leave for a little while."

"Will Amanda be fine? What if they find her?" I asked concerned. I should have never brought her into this whole mess.

"She will be fine. The Volturi aren't too worried about humans as long as they think the humans don't suspect anything," Dontae reassured me.

"When this is all over, we need to think about some living situations," Javier said. "You are one of us now Ann." I was confused for about the hundredth time today, but pleased that Javier considered me one of them. It was nice, sweet almost… if I was into that kind of thing. "Come with me Ann, I want to show you something."

Javier stood and darted around the table in fast vampire speed. I looked behind me at Dontae and Amanda and knew instantly that she would be just fine with my new family. Javier led me down the hall, past closed doors and all the way to the end. All the doors were a plain white with tan doorframes that matched the tile, except for the door he led me too. This door was made from a beautiful finished wood with a curved brass door handle; it seemed almost out of place in this hallway.

"This is my room," Javier said softly. "It isn't the master bedroom or anything; Dontae claimed that one and nobody argues with him." He raised one beautiful, perfect eyebrow in a quizzical arch before reaching out and opening the door.

Javier's room was beautiful. There were two windows, one facing the back porch overlooking a pool I didn't know was there and the other was on the side, looking out on the yard and detached garage. An orange tree just in blossom was just outside the side window, filling the room with the citrus scent. Under the back window was a wooden desk built into the wall, running the length of the room. He had a stereo system hooked up to a laptop on the desk and books filling the shelves above and below the desk. On the wall behind the door were large mirror closet doors, reflecting the side window and orange tree.

I stepped forward into the room. "I take it you like to read," I said, examining the books more closely. He had stacks on top of stacks of different books crammed in the shelves.

"It helps pass the time," he whispered, his breathe tickling the back of my neck.

I turned to face him, his closeness catching me by surprise. I stepped back, trying to regain my composure. "So what did you want to show me?" I asked in the same whisper he had used.

Javier wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me impossibly closer to him. "When we get back, I think it would be best if you stayed here… if you'd like." He placed a soft kiss on my neck, just below the ear. "We have a guest room for your friend." He continued kissing down my jaw. "And you could stay in here…" He reached my lips and whispered against them. "There's plenty of room… I can share…" His scent was so close, so sweet; it overpowered my senses. I grew dizzy under the spell he was putting over me. I had no control and no urge to stop it.

I couldn't handle it anymore. My lips crashed to his as my fingers wound into his silky hair. His thick arms lifted me in one swift motion, sitting me on the desk behind us. He crushed his body to mine as our tongues battled for dominance, our teeth nipping at the other's lip, venom flowing, burning our throats.

Javier's hands slid from my back to my sides, slipping under the hem of my tank top and yanking it up over my head. His hands explored every curve of my body but it wasn't enough. I moaned out against his lips, wanting more, wanting to feel more.

"I thought about you all day. When you were away, I wanted you closer." His hands moved to my breasts, pushing my bra up. His hands felt so good against my skin. "I thought about your lips and how they felt on mine," he growled into my mouth. "I couldn't stop imagining how your beautiful fucking body felt against mine." I gasped as he teased my nipples. He gripped my hands in one of his, pinning them against the wall behind us as his lips worked their way down my neck. Every word he uttered was like sex to my ears. I wanted more with everything he said and every touch he let brush my body.

In the back of my mind, I needed to focus on keeping the shield up to protect us from the army trying to attack, but it was really fucking hard with this god in front of me with his amazing hands and dirty mouth, standing between my legs.

With one hand restraining mine, Javier's other hand had slipped down to my flimsy cloth shorts. Grabbing the hem, he pushed them aside and ran his fingers across my slick lips. I felt my eyes grow wide and knew my heart should be racing if it still beat in my chest.

"So wet, just for me," he moaned against my breast. My senses were going into overdrive. I gasped, straining against his hold on my wrists. Flicking his tongue out against my nipple, he plunged his fingers into me and I let out an involuntary groan, unable to keep quiet. I threw my head back and rocked into his palm in time with his pounding hand.

"You feel so fucking good," he growled, moving his lips back up to my neck. His dirty talk was so fucking hot I couldn't control myself. "Cum for me, Ann." He rubbed his thumb against my clit and sent me over the edge.

"Oh… fuck…" My muscles contracted around his fingers and I stopped struggling against his grip on my hands.

I didn't even have time to recover before I heard a soft snicker coming from the front room. "Are you two done messing around yet?" Marcellus's voice was joking, but I couldn't help but get pissed off at him.

"No privacy around here," I hissed through clenched teeth.

Javier stepped back and helped straighten my clothes out with an undeniable smirk across his face. "So, despite the lack of privacy, would you like to stay with us when we get back?" He smiled and took my hand in his.

"I would love to." How could I say no to a face like that? "But right now, we have an army to take care of." With that, I led him out of the room to meet with the family.


	10. Slaughter

Chapter 9-

Javier POV

I led Ann back out of my room and down the hall to meet up with Marcellus, Dontae, and the few recruits we decided to keep back in November. The four of them were nearing the one-year mark and losing their newborn strength quickly, but they weren't as controlled around humans as us, or surprisingly our newest member for that matter.

"You need to protect your friend while these guys are around, Ann." Dontae give me a questioning look and I gave a slight nod back in his direction. The quick exchange between us went unnoticed by Ann who had tensed up beside me when she saw Marcellus hovering protectively in front of the humans as the others barely contained themselves from the sweet, warm scent of the pumping blood. My thoughts lingered a little too long on the delicious smells wafting from Ann's friend. I usually did fine in close quarters with humans. I had to be able to learn to resist while living so closely to them. I just needed to keep my mind elsewhere and stay well 'fed.'

My attention quickly shifted to the four vampires Marcellus just brought back. They usually spend a lot of time at the house but we had to send them away to a storage building we used for training newborns in downtown Fort Myers the night we brought Ann home.

The only reason they haven't jumped the human and her young yet is their training. They know that we will tear their heads off if they're not careful. We have taught them well enough and have shown them the consequences when you disobey our commands. They have seen enough newborns burn for their mistakes and their inability to follow orders. To be completely honest, I'm not entirely sure why Dontae insisted on keeping these four, but apparently, what he says goes. I didn't like them and they were of no value to us. They were just a liability and we should have killed them with the rest after our last turf battle.

Ann was getting pissed at the hostile stance our young company was holding against the humans and stepped towards them.

"Back off," she seethed, throwing her hand up and pinning them against the wall. She took a step towards them with a nasty snarl rising from her chest.

"Who's this bitch?" Johnny asked a little too forcefully for someone pinned to a wall. Johnny was my least favorite out of all four of them and I knew he was in trouble as soon as he opened his mouth like always. He thought he was a tough guy, but by the sound of the snarl that ripped through her thought, I had a feeling Ann was about to put him in his place.

She shot across the room and had her hand wrapped around his throat. "This bitch is controlling whether you live or die right now, so why don't you back off and keep that filthy mouth shut," she sneered, squeezing his neck so tight, his marble skin beneath her fingers started to crack. Ann was so beautiful when she was angry and it's nice to see that she is showing some sign of being a newborn; I was starting to get worried at her complete control and civility.

"I'd be more than willing to stand here and watch Ann tear you apart Johnny Boy, but we have some vampires of our own to kill," Marcellus cut in with a mad grin across his face.

"Brother, you sure do know how to ruin a perfectly good moment," I chuckled back to him. "But I guess we should get to business." I gave Ann a reassuring look and she let go of the pathetic vampire, who was now cowering with his mouth shut, as he should be. "You are a soldier, no more, no less. You would do good to remember that, Johnny," I hissed through my teeth.

"Javier, there is no need for such harshness. He is on our side and we are going to need all the help we can get," Dontae scolded, shoulders squared and ready to give orders. Dontae's superiority pissed me off, but we had work that needed to be done.

"So what's the plan?" Ann asked eagerly.

I stepped away from Ann's side and joined Dontae across the room.

Dontae turned to Ann while the human skittered away to Ann's side, nearly tripping in her hurry. "All we need you to do is keep your shield around us until we are out there," he said softly. "Once we get to the trees, force three or four of the enemy army through the shield at a time so that we can dismember them without fear of ambush. Also, make sure you keep the rest trapped so that they can't escape and regroup. We are severely outnumbered forty-to-seven so we are all counting on you and your remarkable gift, dear. Do you think you can handle all that? I feel as if I'm asking a lot from you."

"No problem. I can do that." Ann shrugged and still seamed disappointed at the distance she had to keep from the action.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine and I'm sure you'll get to see battle soon enough," I soothed. We don't need our key to victory getting upset after all.

"Now, men," I said turning back to face the four pathetic vampires. "You know the drill. Follow our lead like you were trained and we should be just fine with Ann protecting us. We weren't expecting this attack and are relying on you four to back us up." Johnny still looked angry and I suspected that he might be a problem. "Johnny, you will stay with me. Alexander and Jason, you will be covering Dontae; Matthew, you will stay with Marcellus. Any questions?" I knew that they wouldn't dare question me, even Johnny didn't dare cross me. I trained them with an iron fist as my creator had trained me so many years ago.

"Give us ninety seconds to get there and then release the first of them to the southern side." I said to Ann running my fingers across her jaw to her lips.

Dontae stepped forward. "Take care of your friend and don't leave this house, Ann."

The three of us left, followed by our pathetic army or four, depending entirely on a newborn's control over a gift we did not entirely understand. I had heard rumors of immortals with gifts such as Ann, but had never believed that they could be so powerful. The Volturi classified such gift bearers as shields and I didn't need them knowing about Ann. She was our lucky break and Dontae and I were determined to keep her by our side the moment we saw her throw that tree at us without even touching it.

We were running to the north, to the angry mob waiting to tear us to pieces. "Did she fall for the bait?" Dontae said under his breath.

"Only too easily, brother," I said just as quietly.

"Good. We both know that we can't control her with that ability of hers." Dontae shook his head slightly. "She is too valuable to lose to another coven. If we want any territory, we need her."

"What about the human?" I asked.

"Don't worry about that. I worked my charm on the girl while you were securing Ann." Dontae let out a low mischievous laugh. "We just need to keep Ann happy and everything will be fine."

"I have Ann wrapped around my finger."

As we entered the clearing, we saw thirty-two vampires grouped into a tight circle. Their eyes were wild with fear, not knowing what was restraining them so tightly. We moved to the southern end of the circle and waited for Ann to release a few of them.

"I hope she doesn't open a flood gate," Marcellus said, tense with the wild fury emanating from the newborns.

Twenty-eight newborns were clawing to get at us. We could just barely see the creators through the thick mass of bodies hiding behind their numbers. All four of them were dark skinned. The vampire I assumed to be the leader had dreadlocks nearly to his waist. The leader was also covered in bite marks, more so than I have ever seen in my nearly two hundred years. The mystery of his battle scars frightened me.

Just as was planned, Ann let three newborns free. We tore them to pieces with little effort. Dontae started a fire. The newborns screeched out in rage when they realized what was happening. They had walked into a trap and could only wait for their end.

Our recruits fought at our sides not getting in the way as I thought they would. Johnny was even being reasonably tolerating. We tore through newborn after newborn with the sound of grinding metal masking their screams. Thick purple smoke surrounded us with the slight change of the wind.

We were getting to the last of the men waiting to die. One of the creators was forced through with the next batch. Dontae had gathered enough information about the Miami-Fort Lauderdale coven to that there were three creators and a dominant leader. This was significantly large seeing as covens are usually no larger than two or three, not including their newborns. I guessed that the thirst for power bound these four together, but t couldn't be a tight alliance.

The creator I stood up against now was intimidating, but he wasn't the frightening leader. Our recruits new their responsibility lie with the newborns so while they were working on the two young ones, Dontae, Marcellus and I surrounded this beast. He was thicker than Marcellus and much taller than any of us, but we outnumbered him.

I looked to see how many were left trapped. We still had two creators, the leader and three newborns.

"Leave one of the newborns," I said to the others. "We need at least one survivor for the Volturi."

The two creators and a single newborn were released. Alexander and Jason attacked the newborn while the rest of us tore apart the creators just as easily as the first. We finished them quickly waiting for the leader. He was panicked and trying to escape the invisible barrier. Johnny and Alex tore up the last newborn but did not through him into the flames. We needed a survivor that wouldn't know what had happened and didn't understand what they had seen.

Dontae, Marcellus and myself surrounded the leader. He tried to run. I grabbed a fistful of his dreadlocks and Marcellus twisted his body away from his head. I threw his head into the flames.

The fight, more like the unopposed slaughter, wasn't quite finished. We still had a mess to clean up. Johnny was cocky as ever as he high fived Jason, completely unaware of the second part of the plan. Dontae, Marcellus and I turned on them. Dontae had finally agreed to let me destroy them and we already had a fire going. We tore them to pieces just as easily as we destroyed the enemy.


	11. Fucked Up

_**A/N:Stephanie Meyer owns **_**Twilight**_**. No profit is being made.**_

Chapter 10-

Ann POV

How could I have been so stupid. So selfish. Amanda and Emma went back to our crappy little duplex when Javier, Dontae and Marcellus returned.

The fear in her eyes was clear as day. She was still reeling from the murderous look those newborns shot her. They would have killed her if I wasn't there. She knew she had been in danger. I couldn't believe I had put Amanda and Emma in the face of sure death. I tried to bring my life – no my old life – into this mess. I'm just glad they didn't bring those four wild vampires back to the house.

As soon as Amanda and Emma were gone, Dontae expelled the wrath I had expected when I first brought her to the house.

"Our control is very limited, Ann. Any one of us could have killed that girl and her baby in a fraction of a second." I looked down at the floor knowing that he was right. I had felt the need to kill her myself and I loved her. She didn't mean a damn thing to these men. "If the Volturi ever found out that you told a human about us, they would kill you both."

"I know," I said, wanting him to stop. I felt bad enough.

"No, you don't know." Javier said. "You can stop us from attacking her, but the Volturi have abilities that could put you on the ground, begging for mercy." He softened his tone. "They don't take our one rule lightly, Ann. And they don't offer mercy."

I knew I fucked up. I wasn't human anymore and I couldn't pretend like my world wasn't flipped upside down. Amanda was safer without me. I had to let go. My lack of argument seemed to satisfy them.

"We need to get out of here. Their army attracted too much attention and it wouldn't be wise to stick around during the cleanup," Dontae said. They walked out into the night.

"Where are we going?" I followed them. The darkness did not impede my vision like it did with my human eyes. We ran.

"We are going to my old home. I have some friends there." Javier led the way west. We avoided larger communities and headed for the protected mangrove forests. I could smell the salt from the ocean.

"We are going for a swim." Javier looked at me as we continued through the maze of mangroves.

"A swim?"

"We are in a bit of a hurry. We need to leave the area for a few days and I don't want to leave a trail," Javier said, still not telling me what I was wanting to know.

We reached the sandy beach before I realized what he meant. We were going to his old home. We were going to Mexico and we were going to swim.

"This is insanity." I stared at the others, my mouth hanging open.

"Swimming is easy for us, Ann," Dontae said. "Trust us."

Marcellus didn't wait. He ran straight for the waves with his manic smile in place.

"What's there left to lose?" I said, more to myself than to them. I followed Marcellus into the water.

We swam to the southwest, swimming underwater when we saw the occasional boat in the distance. It was as easy as walking. I had no need for oxygen and swam underwater just to see how deep I could go. I wasn't afraid of losing the others, it was easy to follow the sound of their bodies cutting through the water and they seemed to know the way. When I finally came back up to the surface, I could start to make out the shape of land on the horizon.

"An old friend owns southern Mexico. He controls from Cancun to Villahermosa. We will be reaching shore just north of Cancun where the population is the smallest. I don't want to appear to be a threat."

"Will they attack us?" Dontae asked.

"I hope not."

We swam in silence for the rest of the trip.

When we reached the beach, Javier was the first to leave the water. He stepped onto the sand with his hands raised up, palms out. The rest of us followed his example. Marcellus tensed up and I listened closely, searching the forest around us for danger. I secured my shield around us and waited behind the men.

Out of the trees came a man and a woman, moving like predators, a hiss ripping through their barred teeth. The man was dressed in khaki pants and a light grey button up shirt. The woman wore a flowing white dress that came down to her calves. Despite their aggression, they were both beautiful with glowing red eyes.

"Enrique." Javier took a slow step towards the beautiful couple, his hands still raised. "It's been a long time, my friend."

"Javier," the man said. "Is that really you? You gave us quite a fright swimming in like that." He straightened out of his crouch. "No need to worry, Maria." The woman straightened out of the crouch but her face stayed skewed in a grimace. "What brings you here my friend?"

"We were staying across the Gulf but another coven had us severely outnumbered. We decided to lay low and avoid the slaughter."

Enrique looked at me then back at Javier. "Don't you stay prepared?"

"They caught us by surprise. We only had a few newborns, but they were lost when we ran. We were only able to save this one."

Javier's words drew the woman's attention to me for the first time. A snarl ripped through her barred teeth. "What is this? What are you planning?"

"We plan nothing. We are running, not trying to steal your land." Javier shifted his body to put himself between Maria and myself.

"Look at her eyes." The woman spoke in a musical cadence that did not hide her rage. "She is no older than a week."

"Maria," Enrique said.

"Don't. I have been around longer than you have and I know when I am being played. They are hiding something from us." She jabbed a finger in my direction. "Look at her, Enrique."

"We are only trying to spare our lives by running from danger." Javier pleaded with Maria.

"Liar," she screeched. "You are hiding something."

As if the universe wanted to prove Maria right, the sun broke over the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, bathing us in brilliant light.

**A/N: This chapter introduces the first of the characters that you know. Maria. **


	12. Sex to my Ears

_**A/N: Stephanie Meyer owns **_**Twilight**_**. No profit is being made.**_

Chapter 11-

After our meeting on the beach, Maria never took her eyes off me. She no longer looked angry, instead she had a longing in her eyes. I stuck close to Javier's side, afraid to be alone. I didn't like being outside the comfort of my home. I missed the known. I missed having a schedule and knowing that I would be sleeping in my own bed at night. I didn't even have the escape of sleep anymore.

We spent the day hiding out at Enrique's farmhouse in Teapa. Enrique and Maria saw what I did with the sunlight, but they still didn't trust being outside during the day. We waited for the safety of night while Enrique and Javier caught up. Dontae and Marcellus played cards at the table. Maria always lingered around wherever I was. She tried to keep her distance, but she would occasionally inch closer. The longing in her eyes never went away.

Maria got too close for my comfort a few times and I forced her back. Each time she smiled in delight.

"The possibilities," she said, nearly singing the words.

I stood closer to Javier and tried to ignore her.

When the sun had fallen behind the ragged horizon, I was anxious to get out of the old house. I had seen enough of the cracked stone walls, heard enough of Maria's nonsense ramblings, the burn in my throat was back. The desire, the need for blood was brought back to the surface by the freedom of twilight.

"Javier," I said. "Can we go out now?"

Javier kissed the hollow below my ear. "Enrique, would you mind if we hunted?"

"Only if you don't mind me joining you. I could use a drink." Enrique smiled and turned to Maria. "I'll be back in the morning love."

Maria swept the hair out of Enrique's eyes, tucking a lock of his black hair behind his ear. Her touch looked loving, but she still didn't look at him. "Take care," she said. Maria never looked away from me.

I was the first one out the door, only too eager to get away from her stares.

Javier and Enrique let me lead the way into the city. I quickly found a large man stumbling down a back road. Javier would be proud of me for listening to his instructions. He told me to stay away from crowds and stay inconspicuous. I was trying extra hard to behave and not create any problems. I'm sure they were still mad that I had brought a human to their house. I didn't want to make them angry. I didn't want them to send me away.

"Hello," I said to the man. I stepped closer to him, carefully moving at a human pace.

"Hola hermosa. ¿Puedo ayudarte?" His eyes appraised my appearance. I was still wearing the tiny cloth shorts and tank top. My clothes were stiff and salty from the insanely abnormal trip last night.

"Actually, you can help me." I closed the distance between us and stood on my toes to reach his face. The man tensed but didn't turn away. He leaned his head down as if to kiss me, but I went for the neck. My teeth cut easily through his flesh and his choked cries made the blood gush faster into my waiting mouth. The warm wetness of his blood extinguished the flames charring my throat. I felt vulnerable and a need to protect my kill just like the first time I fed. I heard Javier and Enrique catch their own prey. I kept my shield up as I drained the now lifeless man. I wished he hadn't died so quickly. When the man was finished, I carried his drained body over to the others to dispose of.

"You should try not to make such a mess," Javier said. I looked down at my ruined top.

"I'm sorry," I mouthed the words, not making a sound. Was I ever going to do anything fucking right?

"You have nothing to apologize for." Javier stroked the line of my jaw. "I was just thinking that you look temptingly delicious when you are a mess like that." He traced his tongue along my collarbone. "Mmm, you have good taste in prey."

"You aren't making me want to be neater with my kills," I said, kissing his jaw, moving slowly to his lips.

Enrique unnecessarily cleared his throat.

"You don't have to be here," I said.

Enrique threw a wad of cotton and denim at me, followed by a pair of boots. "My dinner looked to be about your size. You're welcome." Enrique left us. I heard him approach a heartbeat a few streets away. The heart beet sped before thudding to a stop with a broken cry.

"I hope he isn't angry with me. I didn't know-"

"He isn't angry. He is actually impressed that you are so civilized at such a young age." Javier took the clothes from me, dropping them at my side with the boots. "Don't worry about him." He grabbed my waist and pulled me closer. Javier yanked my shirt up over my head.

Part of my mind panicked. I could hear people in the shops and bars around us. We were away from foot traffic down an ally, but what if someone saw us. The dominant part of my mind was hoping he didn't realize this. The dominant part of my mind had me reacting to his closeness.

"Ann," Javier took a step back. I stepped with him. "You should put on the clothes."

"Why do you tease me?" I was fucking angry. He kept a distance while drawing me to him. Always making me want him, but never seeming to want me. What the fuck.

He let out a low laugh. "I don't know what you talking about." The statement was too innocent. His smile was too fucking beautiful.

"What the fuck ever." I pulled out of the grip he still had on my waist and changed into the dead girl's clothes.

Enrique and Javier led the way out of the city. I wanted to run like I had never run before, but they didn't seem to be in a hurry. They ignored me. I felt like an obnoxious shadow, but where else was there to go. I was in a foreign place far from home. I just wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

I sighed. Of course, they didn't respond. I was debating whether to run ahead of them to the house. Our trail would be easy enough to follow. But the sooner I got to the house, the sooner I would have to deal with Maria's stares.

As if Javier knew what I was thinking and wanted to annoy me even more, he started up a fucking conversation with Enrique. "So where did you find Maria?" Javier laughed before he continued. "I never thought you would settle down." I probably would have run ahead if his voice, his laugh, wasn't like sex to my ears. And I was a little curious about her.

"Ah, mi Maria." Enrique sighed and I prayed they would stick to English. "Maria lost everything. A few years back, Maria created an army in an attempt to take Campeche. I already held Campeche and my army was much more obedient than hers. Maria chooses her soldiers carefully ensuring strength, but she has a hard time controlling them, especially when she has a larger army." Enrique smiled. "I won though my army was severely diminished. I couldn't kill her. Of course, I had heard of her and the great armies she once led, but that was a long time ago." Enrique turned to look at Javier. "I thought, with her background, she would help me expand my territory and she did. But even if she didn't, I don't think I would have been able to leave her."

"It's good to finally see you happy," Javier said.

"I thought it was impossible to feel this. We were created to destroy and be destroyed." Enrique looked behind him at me, then to Javier. "Now look at us."

Enrique looked bitter and I distrusted the sincerity in his words. I did not understand Javier's assessment of happiness. This strange man did not look happy. He didn't look like he had known a happy day in all his existence. I ran ahead of them to avoid any further conversation of fake fucking happiness.

I sat with Dontae and Marcellus when I got to the house, not even chancing a glance in Maria direction.

Enrique and Javier were only a minute behind me.

"You're back early," Maria said when they entered.

"I missed you." Enrique greeted her too lovingly. I focused on the game of war Dontae and Marcellus had switched to.

"We have a few hours left before the sun." Maria ran to his waiting arms.

"We should go to Campeche." Enrique held her tight and they ran out the door. Maria gave me one wistful glance before she was gone.

Javier went into the next room without looking at us. I followed him to the back window where he stood staring at the sky. He had the same look Enrique wore, one of pain and sadness.

"What happened to you two?"

Javier continued to stare at the sky. I wasn't sure if he would answer. I stood on my toes behind him and kissed his neck. A low moan slipped from his perfect lips, breaking the silence he had set. He turned and tilted his face down to mine, kissing me back. I almost forgot that I was looking for an answer.

"What happened to you?"

He kissed my nose, my forehead, my hair. "I'm nearly two hundred years old, Ann." Javier touched his palm to my cheek. "I wasn't supposed to live past my first immortal year."

"How?" I didn't know what to ask. I just wanted to hear what he had to say. "Why?"

"Why? Because I was a soldier just like the ones we faced at home. My purpose was to fight while my own human blood still made me strong. I was disposable like any other soldier. Enrique and I were recruited around the same time. We fought together, but we saw what was happening to the vampires that were soldiers before us. We were afraid. We saw many die at the hands of our creator and we killed many more in battle."

Javier shook his head. "Our creator was ambitious, always wanting more. About eight months into my new life, my creator started building our army up again. I had never seen an army so big. He had a hard time controlling us. Many of us turned on each other, but Enrique and I stuck together and we kept our mouth shut about what we had seen and what we knew. We knew we were going to die."

I saw the pain in his eyes, the same as Enrique. "Our creator wanted Ciudad de Mexico. Every coven's dream. Enrique and I knew we would lose. We ran first chance we got and never looked back."

"I wanted a different life, Ann. I left Enrique and traveled to Florida where I met Dontae. Back then, Florida had a very small, scattered population. There was no threat because no one wanted claims to an empty swamp. I was free. In the early 20th century, the railroad created a population boom. Turf wars sprung up everywhere. Soon Florida will be just as bad as Mexico." He kissed my temple. "I don't miss the violence. I never did."

I brushed my fingers across his lips. "I'll protect you."

Javier laughed and I was happy to see the pain leave his eyes.

**A/N: What do you think? Love? Hate? Que pasa?**


	13. Warnings

_**A/N: Stephanie Meyer owns **_**Twilight**_**. No profit is being made.**_

Chapter 12-

We spent a week in Mexico. Every evening at twilight, I ran from the house, ran from Maria's stares, ran from the cooped up bats. I needed to run. I could not stand another minute in the old farmhouse. Javier and Enrique always followed.

"Why don't Dontae and Marcellus ever leave the house?" I had asked the night before.

"We are in someone else's territory, Ann. We are their guests and it is rude to wonder their land. It makes everyone uncomfortable."

I wanted to go home. I needed familiarity. I needed the comfort of not being followed everywhere I went.

When twilight met me once again, Enrique hovered at my side, ready to follow. Instead, I stayed in the corner of the room with no intention of leaving.

"Ann, aren't you coming with us tonight?" Javier said.

"I'll stay here until we go home." I didn't want to be a burden and I wasn't going to get the alone time I desired. I might as well stay cooped up like the bats.

"Dontae and Marcellus need to hunt tonight. We are leaving tomorrow and they need to feed before the journey."

I took a step towards them. The excitement of going home soon took me off guard. "No, go ahead without me." I turned to the window, hiding the relief on my face.

I didn't feel like hunting. I had gone out every night since we arrived and tonight I just felt like being by myself. I missed home. I missed Amanda and Emma.

"Would you like me to stay?" Javier said to me. He glanced at the doorway to the next room where Maria had spent the day. I was relieved that she had left me alone, but I wasn't foolish enough to believe that she wouldn't take advantage of having me to herself for a night. I would go out after the men left. I wouldn't go far, just far enough away from the house to avoid her stares.

"Don't worry about me," I said.

"Come with us, Ann." Javier grabbed my hands in his.

"No really. I'll be fine. I haven't left your side all week." I freed one of my hands and touched his cheek. "Go spend time with your brothers."

"I'll be back soon." Javier pressed his lips to my forehead before turning to leave with the others.

I stood in silence for a while staring out the window. I heard soft footsteps and the ruffle of Maria's cotton dress. She had been still for too long. I knew it wouldn't last. I ran for the door and into the now darkened night.

I could hear Maria's feet on the sand and rocks as she followed but she kept a careful distance.

"Ann," she said. Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, when she called my name.

I secured my shield around myself.

"They will turn on you, Ann," she said. Her voice was still soft, but I heard the hurt in her words. "They always do."

I stopped running.

"They are not your family. They are not brothers and they would turn on each other just as they will you." I rescinded my shield allowing her to step closer. "They only think of themselves. We all are selfish." Maria smiled. "Even the greatest alliances are broken by individual desires."

"Why are you saying this to me?" Maria tried to take another step closer to me, but my shield didn't allow it.

"You are gifted and your gift makes you a prized possession." Maria smiled. "Jasper was mine."

I saw the longing in her eyes. "Jasper?"

"I had everything, Ann. I had power. I had control." Rage replaced the longing. "Would you like to hear my story?"

I dropped my shield and stepped closer to her. Maria smiled.

"Myself and two others, Nettie and Lucy," Maria spit the names out in disgust, "Barely survived a battle. We lost our herd lands. I had lost everything and I wanted revenge. Nettie and Lucy were weak pawns, but they were all I had and I would need their help. I set out to create the best army I could. It was difficult with all males, but I needed soldiers." Maria's eyes gleamed with the memory. "The Civil War was raging in Texas and that is where I got most of my men. But they were still weak, they weren't what I was looking for.

"I will never forget the day I found him. On October 4, 1862, I found my Jasper. I was out hunting for both thirst and soldiers that night. I watched him escort women and children into the city of Houston and waited for him to be alone. Nettie and Lucy were impatient to feed, but I could feel the pull towards the blonde officer. He rode on horseback out of the city and we approached him. I could see the look of amazement and the need to help us on his face when he saw the three of us.

"'He's speechless,' Lucy had said. I could feel that they were just as drawn to this young officer just as I was.

"As if to confirm my suspicion, Nettie leaned toward him, breathing the sweet scent of the blood pumping through his veins. I tried not to look at the pulse in his neck. I wanted him more than I had ever wanted a soldier. 'Mmm, lovely,' Nettie said.

"I had placed my hand on Nettie's arm then, enraged that she would be tempted to waste such a treasure as he was. 'Concentrate, Nettie,' I said. I didn't dare threaten her the way I wanted to. I didn't want to frighten him. 'He looks right – young, strong, an officer.' He tried to speak, but was too frightened. His horse ran back to the city, but he didn't seem to notice. 'And there's something more,' I said to Nettie and Lucy. 'Do you sense it? He's compelling.' I remember searching for the right words to describe the way I felt towards him.

"Nettie quickly agreed with me. She was just trying to get back on my good side. 'Oh, yes,' she said, leaning towards him again.

"I grabbed her arm. 'Patience,' I cautioned her again. 'I want to keep this one.' Nettie grimaced which angered me. I just wanted her gone.

"'You'd better do it, Maria. If he's important to you,' Lucy had said. 'I kill them twice as often as I keep them.' Of course I was planning on changing him myself. I would never trust either of those fools with something so precious.

'Yes, I'll do it. I really like this one,' I said to Lucy. 'Take Nettie away, will you? I don't want to have to protect my back while I'm trying to focus.' The blonde soldier never moved, even when Lucy was talking about killing him. He was brave.

"Nettie and Lucy left us. The soldier watched them as they ran before looking back at me. 'What is your name, soldier?' I had asked.

"'Major Jasper Whitlock, ma'am,' he said. He was polite even in the face of death.

"'I truly hope you survive, Jasper. I have a good feeling about you,' I said, testing his bravery. He never faltered as I reached up and bit him. He was the bravest human I had ever met and the best soldier that I have ever seen in battle."

Maria turned away. "Jasper was my key to victory. He could calm down an angry army or he could rile them up. He was key to training my soldiers how to kill the enemy. He kept us strong and weakened them." Maria's tone turned bitter. "He was even able to warn me when Nettie and Lucy were about to turn on me. If it wasn't for my Jasper, I wouldn't be here today. I miss my Jasper."

"What happened to him?"

"He became attached to one of our soldiers and let them go. It is not our way to allow our soldiers to live past their time. After that, he distanced himself from me before completely abandoning everything we had built together for nearly a hundred years. He left me." Maria's eyes burned with hate. "He belongs to another coven now. Foolish boy."

"He still fights?" I said, secretly wondering if I would ever get to meet the vampire that had left this terrifying woman so bitter.

"Oh no. Apparently he's too good for our lifestyle. He turned his back on our kind, on our nature. He has made enemies of the great Volturi." Maria said the name with admiration and devotion.

"Enemies with the Volturi? Is he okay. Javier said that they don't offer mercy."

"He's fine for now, child. He is on their hit list along with the rest of the Cullens." Her mouth contorted hideously around this name.

"Who are the Cullens?"

"The Cullens are the second largest coven in our world. They are the strange yellow eyes. Their coven has many gifted ones and that has created concern in our world. I don't believe they are as innocent as they claim to be."

The longing in Maria's eyes returned. "You would be a great fighter." She took a step closer. "Join me, Ann."

I threw my shield out, knocking her back fifty yards, and ran. I tried to clear my head of her stares. As I ran, I heard her wind chime laughter echo through the empty night.

From the distance, I heard her call. "Consider my words and heed my warnings, Annabella."


End file.
